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Trump says he has renewed U.S. contact with Russia after talk with Putin

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Today, President Trump announced that he had a 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is the first time a sitting U.S. president has spoken to Putin since 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Trump said that the two of them are working together to end the war in Ukraine.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: People didn't really know what President Putin's thoughts were, but I think I can say with great confidence, he wants to see it ended also. That's good. And we're going to work toward getting it ended and as fast as possible.

CHANG: This is a sharp break from former President Biden and his Ukraine policy and another sign of Trump's friendship with Russia's strongman leader. NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here with more. Hi, Danielle.

DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.

CHANG: OK, so what do we know about what happened in this phone call between Trump and Putin?

KURTZLEBEN: Well Trump announced it in a late morning social media post, and later on, he told reporters that, in the call, they focused on Ukraine and agreed that the war should end. He also said he expects that he and Putin will talk on the phone again soon and that they could meet in person in the not too distant future.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: In fact, we expect that he'll come here and I'll go there, and we're going to meet also probably in Saudi Arabia the first time. We'll meet in Saudi Arabia, see if we get something done.

KURTZLEBEN: And often on the campaign trail, he talked about this. He said he would end the Russia-Ukraine war quickly, though he didn't provide details on how. But in this post he wrote, he was downright effusive. He - it was a pretty long post. But that's in contrast with how Biden talked about Putin. Biden called him a thug and a murderous dictator.

CHANG: Right. OK, well, these talks they're going to have - is Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy - is he going to be there as well?

KURTZLEBEN: That is not clear from what Trump said this afternoon. He was noncommittal at best about that. In fact, he was asked by a reporter whether he sees Ukraine as an equal partner in the peace process, and Trump didn't say yes. He just said, it's an interesting question. He also, though, volunteered that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is not popular in his own country.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: Well, he's going to have to do what he has to do, but, you know, his poll numbers aren't particularly great.

KURTZLEBEN: So during wartime, Ukraine has not been holding elections. But now that Trump's in office, both the U.S. and Russia have now talked about it being time for elections to start again, and that is making Ukraine nervous. But one more thing here. We know that today, Trump did follow up with Zelenskyy after the call with Putin. He said his call went - this call went very well and that they discussed a meeting coming up on Friday between Zelenskyy and Vice President Vance.

CHANG: OK, well, Danielle, there's a lot of context going on here - right? - like, the U.S.'s relationship with Russia and especially Trump's relationship with Putin. How does all of that play into understanding what's happening here?

KURTZLEBEN: Well, a U.S. President talking to Russia is always news, especially given Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. reaction to it at the time. As you'll remember, Biden cut off contact with Russia after the invasion. So given all of that, Trump now talking to Putin on the phone, especially before he talked to Zelenskyy - that's a big deal. Biden's view on this was nothing on Ukraine without Ukraine. Well, this is not that.

I should add the Trump-Putin - to zoom out here, the Trump-Putin relationship - it's been closely scrutinized ever since Russia interfered in the 2016 election. It really hung over Trump's first term. And Trump has praised Putin many times, which is part of his pattern of praising authoritarian leaders. Trump, for his part, though, has always tried to turn that criticism on its head, saying it's good that he's friends with Putin and that the relationship just gets a lot of unwarranted attention.

CHANG: OK, so do we know anything more about what negotiations will look like?

KURTZLEBEN: Well, Trump said in his post that he has a team of people that are going to lead the negotiations, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But then again, Trump also said that he himself will be a big part of it all, so we'll see on that. But he did say he's agreed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who today told European allies that it's unrealistic for Ukraine to go back to its pre-2014 borders before Russia invaded then and annexed Crimea. He also said it's not realistic for Ukraine to join NATO. Neither of those things will be - will make Ukraine happy, so we'll see what comes of that.

CHANG: That is NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thank you, Danielle.

KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Danielle Kurtzleben is a political correspondent assigned to NPR's Washington Desk. She appears on NPR shows, writes for the web, and is a regular on The NPR Politics Podcast. She is covering the 2020 presidential election, with particular focuses on on economic policy and gender politics.
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