President Donald Trump expressed disbelief on Wednesday that Ukraine would join NATO and, moreover, suggested that Ukraine was unlikely to regain all the territories it had lost. This was right after he had a telephone conversation with both President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine. With that, Trump’s engagement was the first serious diplomatic foray into the war that he vowed to finish.
He talked with reporters, calling his talk with Putin “productive.” It lasted for more than an hour and it was agreed that they would meet again in the future, most likely in Saudi Arabia. The Kremlin gave a confirmation, stating that the conversation lasted almost one hour and a half, and Putin invited Trump to visit Moscow.
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Zelenskyy’s office also confirmed that he and Trump spoke for about an hour, discussing Ukraine’s future and potential resolutions to the ongoing conflict. Trump appeared to signal a possible shift in US policy, given that he called into question Ukraine’s NATO aspirations and the possibility for Ukraine to retake some or all of the land it has lost to Russia since the invasion began in February 2022.
Speculation is growing over a Trump-Putin meeting in a neutral venue, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates popping up as anchor points, Russian sources say.
The war in Ukraine started off with the full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022, after it had annexed Crimea in 2014. With negotiations on peace long-stalled, these moves of diplomacy on the part of Trump might open the door for a fresh attempt at ending the conflict.
