Trump, Putin set to Meet in Saudi Arabia on Ukraine

But NATO allies stressed on Thursday that Ukraine and Europe must not be cut out of any peace negotiations.

In their first confirmed contact since Trump's return to the White House, the U.S. president said on Feb. 12 he had held a "lengthy and highly productive" conversation with the Russian counterpart.

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," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about his plans to meet Putin.

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-U.S. 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 Putin has invited Trump to Moscow, it said.

Before taking office on Jan. 20, Trump had promised to end the Ukraine war "within 24 hours."

Trump took the world by surprise as he announced the phone call on his Truth Social platform earlier, saying he and Putin had "both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine," using an unconfirmed figure for the toll in the conflict.

The U.S. president said they had agreed to "work together very closely, including visiting each other's Nations" and to "have our respective teams start negotiations immediately" on Ukraine.

Trump later called Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky said afterwards that he had a "meaningful" call with Trump in which he had "shared details" of his talks with Putin.

Trump said after the conversation that Zelensky "like President Putin, wants to make PEACE."

Zelensky is due to meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio today at the Munich Security Conference.

NATO allies insisted on Thursday that Ukraine and Europe must be in peace talks.

“There can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine. And Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks,” U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey told reporters at NATO headquarters.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that a deal to end the Ukraine war should not be imposed on Kiev.

"The next task is to ensure that there is no dictated peace," Scholz told news outlet Politico.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said: “For me, it’s clear … that Europe must be involved in the negotiations — and I think that’s very easy to understand,” particularly if Europe is ”supposed to play a central or the main role in the peace order.”

Hegseth denied that the U.S. has betrayed Ukraine by launching negotiations about its future without Kiev’s full involvement.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who attended the NATO’ defense ministers meeting Brussels, denied that the U.S. is betraying Ukraine.

“There is no betrayal there. There is a recognition that the whole world and the United States is invested and interested in peace. A negotiated peace,” Hegesth told reporters.

Source: Reuters