MOSCOW: US President Donald Trump said he has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone about ending the war in Ukraine, the New York Post reported, the first known direct conversation between Putin and a US president since early 2022.

Trump, who has promised to end the war in Ukraine but not yet set out in public how he would do so, said last week that the war was a bloodbath and that his team had had “some very good talks”.

In an interview aboard Air Force One, Trump told the New York Post that he had “better not say,” when asked how many times he and Putin had spoken.

“He (Putin) wants to see people stop dying,” Trump told the New York Post. The White House did not respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS state news agency that “many different communications are emerging”.

“These communications are conducted through different channels,” Peskov said when asked by TASS to comment directly on the New York Post report. “I personally may not know something, be unaware of something. Therefore, in this case, I can neither confirm nor deny it.”

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine’s armed forces. Later in 2022, Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine, calling it a “special military operation” to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine and counter what he said was a grave threat to Russia from potential Ukrainian membership of Nato.

Ukraine and its Western backers, led by the United States, said the invasion was an imperial style land grab and vowed to defeat Russian forces.

Moscow controls a chunk of Ukraine about the size of the American state of Virginia and is advancing at the fastest pace since the early days of the 2022 invasion.

Trump-Putin summit

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 Putin to discuss it, though the date or venue for a summit is still not publicly known.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are seen by Russia as possible venues for a summit, Reuters reported earlier this month.

On June 14, Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop its Nato ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.

Reuters reported in November that Putin is open to discussing a Ukraine peace deal with Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join Nato.

The Kremlin has repeatedly urged caution over speculation about contacts with the Trump team over a possible peace deal.

Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian parliament’s international affairs committee, was cited by the state RIA news agency as saying that preparations for such a meeting were at “an advanced stage” and that it could take place in February or March.

Putin last spoke to former US President Joe Biden in February 2022, shortly before Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine. The two leaders spoke for about an hour then, the Kremlin said.

However, Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, in his 2024 book “War”, stated Trump had direct conversations as many as seven times with Putin after he left the White House in 2021.

Asked if that were true in an interview to Bloomberg last year, Trump said: “If I did, it’s a smart thing.” The Kremlin denied Woodward’s report.

On Friday, Trump said he would probably meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy next week to discuss ending the war.

Zelenskiy told Reuters that he wanted Ukraine to supply the US with rare earths and other minerals in return for financially supporting its war effort.

Trump told the New York Post that he has “always had a good relationship with Putin” and that he has a concrete plan to end the war. But he did not disclose further details. “I hope it’s fast,” Trump said.

“Every day people are dying. This war is so bad in Ukraine. I want to end this damn thing.”

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2025