Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Visitors stand in front of an artwork depicting U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at an exhibition in Yalta, Crimea. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump revealed Wednesday (February 12, 2025) that he expects to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace talks, in an extraordinary thaw in relations after a surprise phone call between the two leaders.

Following the interaction, China has offered to host a summit between the two leaders to help end the war, according to a report.

In their first confirmed contact since Mr. Trump’s return to the White House, the U.S. president said he had held a “lengthy and highly productive” conversation with the Russian counterpart who ordered the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

But the move sparked concerns that Ukraine will be left out of talks on its own fate, after Mr. Trump said Kyiv’s wish to join NATO was not “practical” — a key demand of Moscow.

Mr. Trump, who has been pushing for a quick end to the nearly three-year war, denied that Ukraine was being excluded from the direct negotiations between the two nuclear-armed superpowers.

“We expect that he’ll come here, and I’ll go there — and we’re going to meet probably in Saudi Arabia the first time,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about his plans to meet Mr. Putin.

Mr. Trump said he expected it to happen “in the not too distant future” and added that Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman — who played a key role in a Russia-US prisoner exchange this week — would also be involved.

The Kremlin said the call lasted nearly one-and-a-half hours. The two leaders had agreed that the “time has come to work together” and that Mr. Putin has invited Mr. Trump to Moscow, it said.

China proposes Putin-Trump summit

Meanwhile, China has floated a proposal to hold a summit between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump to help end the Ukraine war, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Chinese officials in recent weeks have raised a proposal with the Mr. Trump team through intermediaries to hold a summit between the two leaders and to facilitate peacekeeping efforts after an eventual truce, according to people in Beijing and Washington cited by the newspaper.

China has been repeatedly urged by the West to use its close relationship with Russia to help end the war. Beijing has said it was not a party to the crisis but that it had been consistently promoting peace talks on its own terms.

Call with Zelenskyy

After his interaction with Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump later called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was not included on the earlier call.

Mr. Zelenskyy said afterwards that he had a “meaningful” call with Mr. Trump in which he had “shared details” of his talks with Mr. Putin.

Mr. Trump said after the conversation that Mr. Zelenskyy “like President Putin, wants to make PEACE.”

Andriy Yermak, head of Kyiv’s presidential office, said in televised comments that Mr. Zelenskyy and Mr. Trump had agreed to “immediately” start work on the high-level teams from each side who will try to hash out a deal.

The teams will “begin a process of daily work” and Mr. Zelenskyy and his officials will meet U.S. officials involved at the Munich Security Conference in a day’s time, Mr. Yermak said.

Russia’s terms

But Mr. Trump’s call with Mr. Putin has raised concerns that the United States was agreeing to Russia’s terms.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth told European counterparts earlier Wednesday that Ukraine’s dream of returning to its pre-2014 borders was an “illusionary goal” — and that Kyiv’s wish for NATO membership was “not realistic.”

Both are key demands of Moscow.

Mr. Trump denied that Mr. Zelenskyy was being frozen out, and rejected criticism that Mr. Hegseth’s comments meant Washington was agreeing to Russia’s preconditions.

Mr. Yermak meanwhile reiterated Kyiv’s stance that Ukraine’s “independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty” cannot be subject to compromise.

The Ukrainian leader is calling for tough security guarantees from Washington as part of any deal with Russia. Mr. Trump has meanwhile suggested a deal for Kyiv’s rare earth minerals in exchange for its continued military aid.

‘Root causes’

Mr. Zelenskyy is due to meet U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday (February 14, 2025) at the Munich Security Conference, after meeting U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The Kremlin’s statement on the call with Mr. Trump was more measured.

It said Putin “agreed with Mr. Trump that a long-term settlement could be reached through peace negotiations” but said he wanted to “address the root causes of the conflict,” which Russian blames on western influence on Kyiv.

There had been signs of a thaw this week with a prisoner swap deal that saw Moscow free U.S. teacher Marc Fogel and Belarus release a U.S. citizen, while Washington released Russian cryptocurrency kingpin Alexander Vinnik.

Mr. Trump has previously expressed admiration for Putin and heaped praise on the Russian president in his Truth Social post. He said Mr. Putin “even used my very strong Campaign motto of, ‘COMMON SENSE.'” and thanked him for Mr. Fogel’s release.

However, concern has been mounting in Kyiv and European capitals about the shape of a possible deal.

The French, German and Spanish foreign ministers insisted Wednesday that there could be “no just and lasting peace” without the involvement of Kyiv and its European partners.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive for a meeting in Helsinki on July 16, 2018.
| Photo Credit: AFP

President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during a phone call Wednesday to begin “negotiations” on ending the Ukraine war and would “work together, very closely” toward winding down the conflict.

“We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together,” Trump said in a social media post disclosing details about a call that followed a prisoner swap between the two nations. “But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine.

The Republican president said the leaders also “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” and would be alerting Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy about their conversation.

White House officials declined to clarify whether Ukraine would be a party to the U.S. negotiations with Russia.

The call came on the heels of a prisoner swap in which Russia released American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, of Pennsylvania, after more than three years of detention on drug charges. Alexander Vinnik, a convicted Russian criminal, is being freed as part of the swap that saw Moscow’s release of Fogel, according to people familiar with the deal who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic details.

Vinnik was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the U.S. on cryptocurrency fraud charges and was later extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is currently in custody in California awaiting transport to return to Russia, the officials said.

The Kremlin said Wednesday that a Russian citizen was freed in the United States in exchange for Fogel but refused to identify him until he arrives in Russia.

Trump welcomed Fogel at the White House on Tuesday evening after his return to U.S. soil.

Fogel, an American history teacher who was deemed wrongfully detained by Russia, was released in what the White House described as a diplomatic thaw that could advance negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine. Fogel was arrested in August 2021 and was serving a 14-year prison sentence.

Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for Trump, left Russia with Fogel and took him to the White House, where Trump greeted him. Fogel was expected to be reunited with his family.

Trump declined to say if he spoke with Putin about Fogel and didn’t say what the United States provided in exchange for Fogel’s release.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump suggested that Fogel’s release could help anchor a peace deal on Ukraine, saying: “We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually. I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war.”

The Kremlin was more cautious, but it also noted that the deal could help strengthen mutual trust.

Putin invited Trump to Moscow to discuss Ukraine, Kremlin says

Meanwhile the Kremlin said that Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump agreed to meet in the future and Mr. Putin invited Mr. Trump to Moscow.

Mr. Putin last spoke to a sitting U.S. President in February 2022 when he had a call with Joe Biden shortly before ordering thousands of troops into Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump discussed the Middle East, bilateral relations, Ukraine and a prisoner exchange between Washington and Moscow, state news agency TASS reported.

“The Russian President invited the U.S. president to visit Moscow and expressed his readiness to receive American officials in Russia in those areas of mutual interest, including, of course, the topic of the Ukrainian settlement,” Mr. Peskov said. “Putin and Trump also agreed to continue personal contacts, including arranging a face-to-face meeting.”

Mr. Trump, author of the 1987 book Trump: the Art of the Deal, has repeatedly said he wants to end the war and that he will meet Mr. Putin to discuss it, though the date or venue for a summit is still not publicly known. 

U.S. President Joe Biden during a a reception celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, in the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington, U.S., May 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law a ban on Russian enriched uranium on Monday, May 13, 2024, the White House said, in the latest effort by Washington to disrupt President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The ban on imports of the fuel for nuclear power plants begins in about 90 days, although it allows the Department of Energy to issue waivers in case of supply concerns.

Russia is the world’s top supplier of enriched uranium, and about 24% of the enriched uranium used by U.S. nuclear power plants come from the country.

The law also unlocks about $2.7 billion in funding in previous legislation to build out the U.S. uranium fuel industry.

“Today, President Biden signed into law a historic series of actions that will strengthen our nation’s energy and economic security by reducing, and ultimately eliminating, our reliance on Russia for civilian nuclear power,” Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said in a statement.

Mr. Sullivan said the law “delivers on multilateral goals we have set with our allies and partners,” including a pledge last December with Canada, France, Japan and the United Kingdom to collectively invest $4.2 billion to expand enrichment and conversion capacity of uranium.

The waivers, if implemented by the Energy Department, allow all the Russian uranium imports the U.S. normally imports through 2027.

Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, said that Washington’s decision is leading to shocks in global economic relations, but will not bring the desired results.

“The delicate balance between exporters and importers of uranium products is being disrupted,” the Russian embassy in Washington cited Antonov as saying in a post on its Telegram messaging channel.

“Life has confirmed that the Russian economy is ready for any challenges and quickly responds to emerging difficulties, even extracting dividends from the situation. It will be so this time too.”

Washington:

To address the growing challenge posed by China, it is important not to let Russia fall into Beijing’s lap, Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said on Thursday, asserting that if elected, he would achieve this goal by offering a “deal” with Moscow.

Mr Ramaswamy told Fox News that as a US president, he would offer to freeze the current lines of control between Ukraine and Russia, make a hard commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine into it and lift sanctions. In return, Russia would have to exit its military alliance with China, he said.

“Very clear vision. I would do a deal that (Vladimir) Putin would say yes to but that actually advances American interests so that the United States wins. Here’s what I would do,” Mr Ramaswamy said when asked how he would stop the war in Ukraine.

“I would freeze the current lines of control. I would further make a hard commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine to NATO. That’s enough to get Putin to do the deal. But I will require something even greater in return,” the 38-year-old multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur said.

“Russia has to exit its military alliances with China. Right now, we’re pushing Russia further into China’s hands. The Russia-China military alliance is the single greatest threat that the United States faces today. And so just as Nixon did it in 1972, I’ll do it in reverse,” Mr Ramaswamy said.

“Pull Russia apart from China, and by the way, get Russia to also remove its military presence in the Western Hemisphere. Get out of the Western Hemisphere. Reopen economic relations with Russia, that’s how we do it,” he added.

The Indian-American presidential aspirant said the reason why China is more valuable today is because the US has wrongfully cut off Russia from the West by bombing the Nord Stream one and two pipelines and also sanctioning Russia.

“So if we can reopen the Western economic relations with Russia, Russia has less of a reason to be in partnership with China. There are also cracks in the armour of that relationship if you look closely,” he said.

“Russia actually sent weapons both to India and to Vietnam, both of which border China. They are sending a signal that China wants to build a railroad in northeast China to get to the ocean. Russia won’t let them. So there are cracks in that armour now,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, another Indian-origin Republican presidential candidate and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley slammed Mr Ramaswamy for his comments that he was against using US military force against Iran.

“We will not stop Israel from defending itself to the fullest capacity. And we remain supportive of Israel because they are our friend,” Mr Ramaswamy had told the Israel Hayom.

“I think it’s really important that the US not put our own men and women on the line in a war with Iran, when in fact, there’s no reason for us to be in that kind of war now, and I don’t think that’s good for the United States, and I don’t think that’s good for Israel. But what we do need to do is to make sure that Israel is strong so that Iran isn’t emboldened,” Mr Ramaswamy told the Israeli newspaper.

“Vivek must have missed that the fanatical terrorist regime in Iran regularly calls for ‘Death to America,'” Haley said in a statement.

“If he doesn’t see a nuclear Iran as a threat to American security, then he should take his place beside AOC and the Squad and get nowhere near the White House,” she said, referring to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a group of eight Democratic members of the US House of Representatives known as the Squad.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)