US President Donald Trump expressed optimism on Monday about progress in bringing the war in Ukraine to an end following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump said talks to end the war were “getting much closer than people realize.”
“And President Putin wants it to end. I will tell you that very strongly. Good call, and President Zelensky actually wants it to end now,” he said in reference to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during an event at the White House in Washington.
“I had a very good call, and I think … we’re getting close to getting it done,” Trump said.
Speaking ahead of a NATO summit starting in Ankara on Tuesday, Trump said: “And we’re going to be going to NATO, and we’re going to be talking about it, and we, I think, we’re going to get it. I think we’re going to get it ended.”
Ukraine has been warding off a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022.
Recent large-scale Russian missile attacks have claimed multiple lives in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, while Ukraine has targeted Russia’s oil sector and attacked links between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula.
