President Trump said on Wednesday that he had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, characterizing it as the beginning of a negotiation to end the war in Ukraine.
It was the first confirmed conversation between the two men during Mr. Trump’s second term, coming as Mr. Trump has made clear to advisers that finding a U.S.-backed end to a war that Russia began is a priority for his administration.
“We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post. “But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine.” (An estimated several hundred thousand deaths have occurred in the conflict, not millions.)
For Mr. Putin, the call was a major milestone, signifying the collapse of Western efforts to isolate him diplomatically after he invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago. Ever since Mr. Trump’s re-election in November, the Russian president has heaped praise on Mr. Trump, underlining the Kremlin’s hope that the new American leader could reshape Moscow’s relationship with Washington and back away from supporting Ukraine.
The conversation between the two presidents came a day after Russia agreed to release an imprisoned American teacher in exchange for the United States returning a convicted cybercriminal to Russia.
Mr. Trump, for whom fear of a nuclear war dates back decades, has long sought a better relationship with Russia. At a summit with Mr. Putin in Helsinki, Finland, in his first term, Mr. Trump accepted Mr. Putin’s statement that Russia did not interfere in the election he had won, a view that contradicted the assessment of U.S. intelligence officials.
Mr. Trump campaigned last year on a pledge to settle the war in Ukraine in “24 hours,” a hyperbolic description of his own deal-making skills that nonetheless underscored how important achieving a peace agreement was to him.
His announcement of a plan to work with Russia on a cease-fire comes amid fears in Ukraine that Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump would forge a close relationship that would push Ukraine to the sidelines in any peace talks.
After speaking to Mr. Trump on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine emphasized that he would be part of the process, writing on social media that he and the U.S. president were “charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace. As President Trump said, ‘Let’s get it done.’”
Mr. Trump said his conversation with Mr. Zelensky “went very well.”
“He, like President Putin, wants to make PEACE,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post, adding that an initial meeting would be held on Friday in Munich, with a delegation led by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Mr. Trump did not elaborate on how Mr. Zelensky would factor into the discussions that he and Mr. Putin were setting in motion. Mr. Trump has long been skeptical of Ukraine and has never warmed to Mr. Zelensky.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters that Mr. Putin’s call with Mr. Trump lasted almost an hour and a half.
He said that the two men agreed to hold a personal meeting and that Mr. Putin invited Mr. Trump to visit Moscow, something that Mr. Trump also alluded to in his social media post. Mr. Putin agreed with Mr. Trump that “the time has come for our countries to work together,” Mr. Peskov said.
On Ukraine, Mr. Putin told Mr. Trump of “the need to eliminate the root causes of the conflict,” Mr. Peskov said. That was a sign that the Russian president would not accept a simple cease-fire in Ukraine and would seek broader concessions from Ukraine and the West before he stopped fighting.
The Ukrainians appear to be facing an effort in which they have little leverage. The call between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump came on the same day that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, said that it was an “unrealistic” objective for Ukraine to restore its borders as they were before 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea. Mr. Hegseth added that the United States did not support Ukraine’s desire to join NATO as part of a realistic peace plan.
Mr. Hegseth also suggested that Europe needed to assume a greater role in its own defense, echoing a point that Mr. Trump has made for many years.
Mr. Trump echoed his defense secretary later on Wednesday, telling reporters that “it’s unlikely” that Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders. “They took a lot of land and they fought for that land,” he said. The president then added that he thought that “some of it will come back.” Mr. Trump also said he thought that future NATO membership for Ukraine was not “practical.”
But Mr. Trump also said that he intended to continue sending financial support to Ukraine, adding that he wanted it “secured.” “If we didn’t do that, Putin would say he won,” Mr. Trump said, in the clearest indication he has given that he recognizes that the aid is leverage in acquiring a deal.
Mr. Trump said he did not believe that Mr. Hegseth’s comment’s undermined negotiations with Russia. “I’m backing Ukraine,” Mr. Trump said from the White House.
After his call on Wednesday with Mr. Trump, Mr. Zelensky wrote on social media that they discussed a plan that would secure continued U.S. support in exchange for access to Ukrainian natural resources and the “preparation of a new document on security, economic cooperation, and resource partnership.”
The United Nations said on Wednesday that it welcomed any efforts leading to peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
“We would appreciate any efforts to resolve the war in Ukraine that would involve the Russian and Ukrainian sides, so obviously if both of them are willing to be involved in the process, that would be a welcome development,” said Farhan Haq, a U.N. spokesman.
After a meeting of European foreign ministers in Paris on Wednesday, the French Foreign Ministry said the participants — France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, Britain, Ukraine and the European Union — were prepared to increase support for Ukraine “in the face of Russia’s war of aggression.”
“We are looking forward to discussing the way ahead together with our American allies,” the ministry said in a statement. “Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength. Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations. Ukraine should be provided with strong security guarantees. A just and lasting peace in Ukraine is a necessary condition for a strong trans-Atlantic security.”
Mr. Trump wrote in his social media post that the U.S. negotiating team would include Mr. Rubio; John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director; Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz; and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. Mr. Witkoff was in Moscow this week and retrieved the American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, who was imprisoned for more than three years in Russia.
Mr. Trump did not mention Keith Kellogg, the retired general he had named as his envoy for Russia and Ukraine. Mr. Kellogg has generally taken a more aggressive posture toward Russia than some of Mr. Trump’s informal advisers, and he recently suggested that Mr. Trump could increase sanctions against Russia to force it toward a peace deal.
When asked why Mr. Kellogg was not named as part of the negotiating team, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters on Wednesday that he remained “a critical part of this team and this effort” and that he was still “very much” a part of the administration.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly refused to say whether he had spoken to Mr. Putin before Wednesday, although several people who would know of such a call in the U.S. government were not aware of one, according to people briefed on the president’s conversations.
Mr. Trump has often made admiring remarks about the Russian president, whom he called a “genius” after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But in the first week of Mr. Trump’s second term, he was more critical, saying Mr. Putin should not have invaded.
“He can’t be thrilled, he’s not doing so well,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office hours after he was inaugurated last month. “Russia is bigger, they have more soldiers to lose, but that’s no way to run a country.”
Farnaz Fassihi, Julian E. Barnes, Maria Varenikova and Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting.
