Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelensky said Thursday that it was “not very pleasant” that President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day earlier before calling him.
“We’ve already had three conversations with President Trump, so I don’t take this call as a priority (for Trump), that he spoke to Russia first. Although it’s really not very pleasant in any case,” Zelensky told reporters while visiting the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant in western Ukraine.
“As for the conversation, he knows my thoughts. I really believe that Ukraine is the priority first and foremost, there is a war against us,” he added.
The call between Trump and Putin marked the first time in three years that the leaders of the US and Russia held a publicly known phone call. After the conversation, Trump said negotiations to end the war would start “immediately,” and then he called Zelensky.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Trump and Putin both offered the other to visit their respective countries but that a summit in a third country would happen first.
“They have exchanged invitations, and now, President Trump has a standing invitation to visit Russia, and the Russian president has a standing invitation to visit the United States,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“It is another thing that they have agreed to promptly arrange and hold a working meeting in a third country. That said, according to the presidents’ plan, the meeting will take place before any eventual exchange of visits,” Peskov added.
Trump has said he expects to soon meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia. Peskov said US and Russian officials were working out the details of the summit but didn’t say what country it will be held in.
Zelensky said that he believes the priority should be a meeting between Ukraine and the US to discuss a plan to “stop” Putin. “I think it’s only fair to talk to the Russians after that,” he said.
Peskov also said that the US would be Russia’s “main partner” in negotiations to end the war, although he added that Ukraine would “definitely take part in the negotiations in one way or another.”
The Trump-Putin call came the same day that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine as part of any future peace deal and said the idea of restoring Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was “unrealistic.” Hegseth also said there could also be no NATO troop deployment to Ukraine.
