Trump speaks to Putin, Zelenskyy as U.S. defence secretary dismisses prospect of Ukraine NATO membership
U.S. also says pre-2014 boundaries not realistic for Ukraine going forward
U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says a return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is unrealistic and the Trump administration does not see NATO membership for Kyiv as part of a solution to the war triggered by Russia's invasion.
Hegseth's comments on Wednesday came as U.S. President Donald Trump made his first foray into diplomacy over a war he has promised to end rapidly.
Hegseth, at a meeting involving NATO members in Brussels, said the White House does not see NATO membership for Ukraine as "a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement" to end the war.
Hegseth said the U.S. remains committed "full stop" to NATO and a defence partnership with Europe. But Ukraine's security guarantees should be backed by "capable European and non-European troops," the Pentagon chief said.
"If these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to Ukraine at any point, they should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission and they should not be covered under Article 5," he said, referring to the alliance's mutual defence clause.
Shortly after, Trump said on social media that he "just had a lengthy and highly productive call" with Russian President Vladimir Putin on a wide range of topics, including the war, the Middle East and artificial intelligence. Trump had been circumspect with reporters in his first month as to whether he'd had any conversations with Putin.
Trump's call to Putin lasts 90 minutes
Russian news agencies confirmed the conversation and said that Putin extended an invitation to Trump to come to Moscow for talks.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said they "agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately," and that he would begin by phoning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
After a call with the Ukrainian leader, Trump said: "The conversation went very well. He, like President Putin, wants to make PEACE."
Trump separately told reporters in the Oval Office that he believes "we're on the way to getting peace," and that he wants "to see people stop getting killed."
Zelenskyy's office said Trump and the Ukrainian president spoke by phone for about an hour, while the Kremlin said Putin's call with Trump lasted nearly an hour and a half.
"I had a meaningful conversation with @POTUS. We long talked about opportunities to achieve peace, discussed our readiness to work together at the team level, and Ukraine's technological capabilities — including drones and other advanced industries," Zelenskyy wrote on X.
Trump said he was tasking members of his cabinet and other officials to begin leading negotiations to seek an end to a war.
Zelenskyy and other senior Ukrainian officials are expected to meet members of Trump's administration on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference later this week to discuss the war.
'They may be Russian someday': Trump
Hegseth also said Wednesday that a return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders was unrealistic.
"Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering," he added.
In 2014, conflict in eastern Ukraine began after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution. Russia soon annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine and then backed pro-Russian separatists in an armed insurgency against Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region.
Hegseth said a "sovereign and prosperous" Ukraine remains a priority but that Washington faces "stark strategic realities," such as U.S. border security issues and threats posed by China.
In an interview with Fox News earlier this week, Trump did not appear to give full-throated support for Ukraine's future sovereignty.
"They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday," he said.
Trump has also said the U.S. would like access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals in exchange for support.
On the campaign trail last year, Trump railed against the significant military aid that Joe Biden's administration provided to Ukraine since Russian troops invaded in February 2022. The total has been estimated at $65 billion US.
During his first term, Trump suggested to Zelenskyy in a phone call that the Ukrainian leader should co-operate in efforts to discredit Biden. U.S. aid to Ukraine was delayed. Democrats impeached Trump for what they said was a quid pro quo, but Trump was subsequently acquitted in the Senate, avoiding removal from office.
Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the State Department during Biden's term, argued on social media that by making the public pronouncement on Ukraine's NATO membership, the Trump administration "just surrendered one of the main points of leverage before negotiations even begin."
Russia rejects land swap idea
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia will never discuss trading territory it holds for areas in Russia's western Kursk region held by Kyiv, after the idea was floated publicly by Zelenskyy.
Russia controls just under 20 per cent of Ukraine, or more than 112,000 square kilometres, while Ukraine controls around 450 square kilometres of the Kursk region, according to open-source maps of the battlefield.
In 2024, Russian forces gained ground in Ukraine at the fastest rate since 2022, the year Russia invaded. But Russian gains have come at the cost of heavy, though undisclosed, losses in men and equipment.
Zelenskyy told the Guardian newspaper he planned to offer Russia a straight territory exchange to help bring an end to the war, including offering pockets of Kursk that Ukraine holds.
"We will swap one territory for another," Zelenskyy said, adding that he did not know which part of Russian-occupied territory Ukraine would ask for back.
"I don't know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority," he said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow categorically rejects all offers to trade territory.
"This is impossible," he told reporters at a daily briefing. "Russia has never discussed and will not discuss the exchange of its territory."
Deadly attack in Kyiv
Amid the diplomatic developments, a pre-dawn Russian missile salvo on the Ukrainian capital killed at least one civilian and injured four others, sparking several fires in the city of three million, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine's air force said it shot down six of seven ballistic missiles launched in the attack. Out of 123 drones, the military shot down 71 and likely used electronic countermeasures against 40 more.
An overnight attack also damaged critical infrastructure and injured two people in the northern region of Chernihiv, local officials said.
With files from CBC News