Trump told Zelenskyy he intends to end the war as soon as possible
The conversation lasted about 30 minutes and was the first since Trump and Zelensky met in Davos at the end of January. It took place the day after the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the day before a planned meeting between Trump's envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Wigkoff and the Ukrainian negotiating team in Geneva. Kushner and Wigkoff were also present during Wednesday's call. According to one source, Russian representative Kirill Dmitriev may be in Geneva on Thursday for separate talks with the American envoys.
Sources described the conversation between Trump and Zelensky as very friendly and positive. The Ukrainian official and another source said that Zelensky thanked Trump for all his help and said that only Trump could force Vladimir Putin to stop the war. According to one of the interlocutors, Zelensky expressed hope that the war would end this year, to which Trump replied that it had gone on too long and he would like to end it within a month. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
During the conversation, the parties also discussed the possibility of a trilateral summit of leaders. Last week, Zelensky told Axios that differences over territory could be overcome through direct talks between him, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump told Zelensky that he would work to organise such a summit if the next meeting of American, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, scheduled for early March, brought more progress.
"We hope that this meeting will create an opportunity to move the negotiations to the leadership level. President Trump supports this sequence of steps. This is the only way to resolve all the complex and sensitive issues and finally put an end to the war," Zelensky wrote in X.
The Ukrainian official also said that Trump reiterated his willingness to provide Ukraine with substantial US security guarantees as part of a potential peace agreement with Russia.
