Dial M for Moscow: Trump rings Putin for the primary time since 2022 to induce him to finish the Ukraine conflict
Donald Trump has reportedly admitted to calling Russian despot Vladimir Putin about ending his invasion of Ukraine, making him the first US president to have a direct conversation with Putin since 2022.
Trump, who has long promised to end the war in Ukraine but has not yet publicly set out his plans, said last week that the war was a bloodbath and that his team had had ‘some very good talks’.
In an interview aboard Air Force One on Friday Trump coyly told the New York Post that he had ‘better not say’ how many times he and Putin had spoken over the phone.
‘[Putin] wants to see people stop dying,’ Trump told the newspaper.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS state news agency that ‘many different communications are emerging’.
‘These communications are conducted through different channels,’ Peskov said when asked by TASS to comment directly on the New York Post report.
‘I personally may not know something, be unaware of something. Therefore, in this case, I can neither confirm nor deny it.’
While the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, the broader conflict has been going on for more than a decade, after pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was toppled in the Revolution of Dignity.
Donald Trump (pictured) said last week that the war was a bloodbath
Trump coyly told the New York Post that he had ‘better not say’ how many times he and Vladimir Putin (pictured) had spoken over the phone
An indignant Russia then annexed Crimea, before providing military support to pro-Russia militant groups in several regions.
Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, calling it a ‘special military operation’ to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine, and to ‘demilitarise and denazify’ the country.
He also said he wanted to protect Russia from the threat of Ukraine’s potential membership with NATO.
But Ukraine and its Western backers, led by the United States, has consistently stated that Russia’s invasion is an imperial land grab, and have long vowed to defeat Russian forces, though support from the US is teetering.
Currently, Moscow controls a chunk of Ukraine about the size of the American state of Virginia and is advancing at the fastest pace since the early days of the 2022 invasion.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war and that he will meet Putin to discuss it, though the date or venue for a summit is still not publicly known.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are seen by Russia as possible venues for a summit.
On June 14, Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war, requesting that Ukraine drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
An administrative building stands damaged after Russian missile attack on February 5, 2025 in Izium, Ukraine
An explosion of a drone is seen in the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 5, 2025
A soldier of the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian infantry unit storms an enemy position in a simulated attack at the Nato ‘Brilliant Jump’ military drill on February 26, 2024 in Poland
British troops driving Jackal combat vehicles descend from M3 amphibious rigs of the German/British Amphibious Engineer Battalion 130 after crossing the Vistula River during the NATO Dragon 24 military exercise on March 4, 2024
In November, it was reported that Putin was open to discussing a Ukraine peace deal with Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO.
The Kremlin has repeatedly urged caution over speculation about contacts with the Trump team over a possible peace deal.
Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian parliament’s international affairs committee, was cited by the state RIA news agency on Thursday as saying that preparations for such a meeting were at ‘an advanced stage’ and that it could take place in February or March.
Putin last spoke to former US President Joe Biden in February 2022, shortly before Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine. The two leaders spoke for about an hour then, the Kremlin said.
Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, in his 2024 book ‘War’, reported that Trump had direct conversations as many as seven times with Putin after he left the White House in 2021.
Asked if that were true in an interview to Bloomberg last year, Trump said: ‘If I did, it’s a smart thing.’ The Kremlin denied Woodward’s report.
On Friday, Trump said he would probably meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy next week to discuss ending the war.
Trump told the New York Post that he has ‘always had a good relationship with Putin’ and that he has a concrete plan to end the war. But he did not disclose further details.
‘I hope it’s fast,’ Trump said. ‘Every day people are dying. This war is so bad in Ukraine. I want to end this damn thing.’
