President Donald Trump confirmed his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the United States hopes to see the Ukraine and Russia war come to an end.
“We had a great conversation. He is wanting to make a deal — and if Zelensky is wanting to make a deal, that'd be very nice,” Trump told reporters before he to Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday.
"Can you tell us about your conversation with President Putin?"@POTUS: "We had a great conversation. He is wanting to make a deal — and if Zelensky is wanting to make a deal, that'd be very nice."
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 9, 2026
"What is the holdup?"@POTUS: "The holdup is two people that hate each other." pic.twitter.com/w75FcWAPLW
“The holdup is two people that hate each other. I think more than anything else it’s two people that hate each other,” Trump added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, said Tuesday that there was a call between the two leaders to recap the conversations with American special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner over the weekend.
“On a call, President Putin and President Trump positively assessed Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s visit to Moscow and Kiev,” he posted to X on Tuesday, adding in another post that “President Putin specifically praised First Lady Melania Trump’s efforts to reunite both Russian and Ukrainian children with their families — an important humanitarian contribution that rises above politics.”
The deadly war in Eastern Europe has been ongoing since 2022, and Putin and Trump have not met since an Alaska summit last year.
Kushner and Witkoff also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this weekend, posting that “if the war continues into the winter, we are counting heavily on the winter package, which I discussed in detail today with Steve, Jared, and our European partners.”
“We are counting on support for air defense and the energy sector, as well as substantial volumes of American LNG and the ability to use them,” he continued.
Today, we had three rounds of negotiations. All of them were very substantive. I want to thank Steve and Jared for coming. And we are grateful to the President of the United States. We had good discussions. Thank you for devoting sufficient attention today to the winter period… pic.twitter.com/Jq8ClgzvHi
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) September 6, 2026
The president previously told Townhall that he wants there to be a peace agreement as a condition for him formally meeting in person with Putin again.
“Russia's got great land and valuable land. But we could do one summit immediately,” Trump said last week.
“I wanna do it when that war is ending, and I think we will,” he added.
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