US President Donald Trump has said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to begin "negotiations" on ending the Ukraine war. "We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelensky, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now," Trump said in a post on his social media platform.
Trump said the two leaders that they would "work together, very closely". The Kremlin said Putin and Trump had spoken for nearly an hour and a half by telephone and that the two men had agreed to meet. Trump has long said he would quickly end the war in Ukraine, without saying how he would accomplish this. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump's Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said a return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders was unrealistic and the US administration did not see NATO membership for Kyiv as part of a solution to the war.
Speaking at a meeting of Ukraine's military allies at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Mr Hegseth delivered the clearest and bluntest public statement so far on the new U.S. administration's approach to the nearly three-year-old war. "We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective," Hegseth told a meeting of Ukraine and more than 40 allies at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
"Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.". The call between Trump and Putin followed a prisoner swap that resulted in Russia releasing American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, of Pennsylvania, after more than three years of detention. Alexander Vinnik, a convicted Russian criminal, is being freed as part of a swap that saw Moscow's release of Mr Fogel. This is a breaking news story and is being updated.
