WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had a “great” phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the week and that the Russian leader wanted to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
“He is wanting to make a deal, and if (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy is wanting to make a deal, that’d be very nice,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One en route to Dallas for the Republican National Convention. Trump spoke with Putin on Tuesday, shortly after U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner returned from a diplomatic swing through Moscow and Kyiv, where they discussed potential proposals to bring the war to a close.
Last month, CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with intelligence officials in Moscow, in part to encourage Russian officials to end their invasion. Despite those efforts and Trump’s statements, intelligence officials in the U.S., Ukraine and across Europe continue to doubt Putin is seriously interested in ending his ongoing war, now in its fourth year.
“The holdup is two people who hate each other,” Trump told reporters, referring to Putin and Zelenskiy. “I think more than anything else, it’s two people that hate each other.”