Putin and Trump hold an hour-long call after the Witkoff and Kushner visits
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Putin and Trump held a constructive and candid hour-long call in which Trump stressed ending the war in Ukraine and Putin said Russia has no aggressive plans towards Europe. The White House issued no immediate account of its own. The call followed Witkoff and Kushner's visits on 5 and 6 September.
Geopolitics··Night
Ushakov said the call lasted an hour and was constructive
The Kyiv Independent reported that Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said the call lasted an hour and was constructive and quite candid. Trump stressed the need to end the war in Ukraine, and Putin set out his view of the peace process and assured Trump that Russia has no aggressive plans towards Europe. Meduza corroborated the same account, writing that Ushakov said Vladimir Putin spoke with Donald Trump for exactly one hour in a conversation that was constructive and candid. U.S. officials have not yet commented on the substance of the call.[1], [2]
The call followed the Witkoff and Kushner visits to Moscow and Kyiv
The Kyiv Independent wrote that the call followed visits by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who met Putin in Moscow on 5 September and Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on 6 September. Meduza reported that, according to Ushakov, the two leaders discussed those trips, that the Kremlin viewed the outcome of the U.S. negotiators' visit to Russia positively, and that work through that channel would continue.[1], [2]
The readout rests on the Russian side; Zelensky had said the war may run into winter
The Kyiv Independent wrote that the White House issued no immediate account of its own, so the description of the conversation rests on the Russian side. Zelensky said after the Witkoff and Kushner talks that the war is likely to continue into the winter months. Russia struck Kyiv again in the early hours of 8 September, ending a three-day pause in attacks on the Ukrainian capital. Meduza reported that Ushakov said Trump wants a breakthrough during his term, that ending the war was a condition for fully restoring US-Russia relations, and that Putin praised US mediation.[1], [2]
