US President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to reach a deal to end the war in Ukraine, following what he described as a “great” conversation with the Russian leader earlier this week.
Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One for Dallas to attend the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Trump said a peace agreement could be possible if both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were willing to negotiate.
“He is wanting to make a deal, and if Zelenskiy is wanting to make a deal, that’d be very nice,” Trump said.
Trump spoke with Putin by phone on Tuesday, shortly after US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, returned from diplomatic visits to Moscow and Kyiv.
Witkoff and Kushner have been leading many of Washington’s major diplomatic efforts aimed at finding a way to end the war, which has now entered its fourth year.
Last month, CIA Director John Ratcliffe also met Russian intelligence officials in Moscow, with part of the discussions focused on encouraging Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the renewed diplomatic efforts and Trump’s comments, intelligence officials in the US, Ukraine and across Europe remain sceptical about whether Putin is genuinely prepared to end the war.
Trump suggested that the main obstacle to a deal was the relationship between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
“The holdup is two people who hate each other,” he said, referring to Putin and Zelenskiy.
“I think more than anything else, it’s two people that hate each other,” Trump added.
