Trump and Putin’s New Talks: Ending the Ukraine Conflict—14 Feb. 2025

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President Trump announced on Wednesday that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin talks “immediately” to end Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

“We want to stop the millions of deaths occurring in the Russia-Ukraine war,” Trump, 78, posted on Truth Social. He stated that Europe’s largest and deadliest land conflict since World War II “would not have happened if I were president, but it did happen, so it must end.”

The president also mentioned that he and Putin were open to “visiting each other’s nations” and indicated to reporters in the Oval Office that “we expect he’ll come here, and I’ll go there, and we’re going to meet, probably in Saudi Arabia.”

Trump added on Truth Social that the U.S. delegation for any peace talks would be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

“No one wants peace more than Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky concluded. “Together with the U.S., we are charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace. As President Trump said, let’s get it done.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that it was “unrealistic” to expect Russia to return the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine or to agree to Ukraine’s accession to NATO as part of a negotiated settlement to the nearly three-year-old conflict.

“We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine,” Hegseth told a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels, where officials from approximately 50 nations gathered to discuss the next steps to support Kyiv in its fight against Moscow. “But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,” he said.

Hours later, Trump stated that Hegseth’s assessment was “probably true” and expressed that he was “OK” with Russia having a say in whether Ukraine should join NATO. “I think long before this, President Putin said there’s no way they’d allow that,” Trump reflected. “This has been going on for many, many years. [Russia has] been saying for a long time that Ukraine should not enter NATO, and I’m okay with that.”

Hegseth’s declaration represented a significant shift in U.S. policy from the open-ended stance of the Biden administration. It also undermined some of Kyiv’s potential leverage in any negotiations, as one of Putin’s main objectives has been to prevent Ukraine from joining the 32-nation alliance.

Reference:

“Trump, Putin Talking Truce” NY Post