WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that a resolution to the war in Ukraine, now more than four years old, is “getting much closer than people realize,” and he plans to raise the issue during NATO summit talks in Turkey this week.
Trump’s comments came after he spent part of his weekend on the phone with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He offered no specific details to back up his optimism, and the statement came even as Russia carried out a deadly overnight assault on Kyiv and the surrounding area using missiles and drones, leaving at least 28 people dead.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump told reporters: “This is one that I think we’re getting much closer than people realize. And President Putin wants it to end. I will tell you that very strongly.”
Trump described his Fourth of July phone call with Putin as a “good call.” A Kremlin aide said the conversation ran 85 minutes and that the American president offered to help chart a path toward peace.
“And President Zelenskiy actually wants it to end now. And we’re going to be going to NATO, and we’re going to be talking about it, and I think we’re going to get it,” Trump continued. “I think we’re going to get it ended. It’s been a terrible situation.”
Trump is set to meet with Zelenskiy on Wednesday on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara. A U.S. official said the purpose of those talks is to make a fresh push toward ending the conflict, and that Trump would likely reach out to Putin again after meeting with the Ukrainian leader.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Trump agreed to stay in contact “in the near future” and that Russia views the U.S. president’s position on Ukraine as steady and unchanged.
“President Trump, the U.S. president, has a fairly consistent stance, and all these fabrications about him supposedly changing his views like a weather vane are, of course, untrue,” Peskov told reporters. “He is consistent and confident in his understanding of what is happening, but, most importantly, he is open to listening to the information that is conveyed to him by Putin.”
Zelenskiy also called his weekend conversation with Trump “very good.” In an interview with the Financial Times, Zelenskiy said Trump told him that Ukraine “is doing very well” with its long-range drone campaign targeting Russian oil industry infrastructure, a campaign that has contributed to fuel shortages inside Russia.
When asked whether Trump’s positive comments meant the U.S. president was firmly in Ukraine’s corner, Zelenskiy suggested the American leader now sees the conflict differently in light of recent Ukrainian battlefield successes.
“President Trump wants to be where there’s success,” the Financial Times quoted Zelenskiy as saying. “That’s tied to many things — not only to his personality, but to the approaching elections, to his status, to his belief in how this war can be ended.”
The relationship between Trump and Zelenskiy has been rocky. A previous Oval Office meeting between the two deteriorated into a public argument, but the Ukrainian president has since made efforts to repair the relationship through a series of subsequent meetings.
Trump’s latest remarks made no mention of his earlier comments in which he urged Zelenskiy to move quickly toward a deal with Russia, saying the Ukrainian leader lacked the “cards” needed for effective negotiations.
