INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Donald Trump said both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed a desire for peace in separate
phone calls with him on Wednesday, and Trump ordered top U.S
officials to begin talks on ending the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported.The conversations came after Trump&s defense secretary earlier said
Kyiv would have to give up its long-held goals of joining the NATO military alliance and regaining all of its territory seized by Russia,
signaling a dramatic shift in Washington&s approach to the conflict.After speaking with Putin for more than an hour, Trump said the Russian
leader, who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, wants the war to end and they discussed &getting a ceasefire in the
not-too-distant future.&&He wants it to end
He doesn&t want to end it and then go back to fighting six months later,& Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.&I think we&re on the way
I think President Putin wants peace, President Zelenskiy wants peace and I want peace
I just want to see people stop getting killed,& he added.Trump has long said he would quickly end the war in Ukraine, without spelling out
exactly how he would accomplish this, read the report.The Kremlin earlier said Putin and Trump had agreed to meet, and Putin had invited
Trump said their first meeting would &probably& take place soon in Saudi Arabia.In a post on his social media platform, he said Secretary of
State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, national security adviser Michael Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff would lead
negotiations on ending the war.Trump and Zelenskiy spoke after Trump&s call with Putin, and Zelenskiy&s office said the conversation lasted
for about an hour.&I had a meaningful conversation with @POTUS
We… talked about opportunities to achieve peace, discussed our readiness to work together …and Ukraine&s technological capabilities…
including drones and other advanced industries,& Zelenskiy wrote on X.No Ukraine peace talks have been held since the early months of the
conflict, now approaching its third anniversary
Trump&s predecessor, Joe Biden, oversaw billions of dollars of military and other aid to Kyiv and had no direct contact with Putin after
Russia&s invasion, Reuters reported.Russia occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and has demanded Kyiv cede more territory and be rendered
permanently neutral under any peace deal.Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says it must receive NATO membership or
equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.European powers, including Britain, France and Germany, said on
Wednesday they had to be part of any future negotiations on the fate of Ukraine, underscoring that only a fair accord with security
guarantees would ensure lasting peace
They said they were ready to enhance support for Ukraine and put it in a position of strength.Earlier on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete
Hegseth delivered the new administration&s bluntest statement so far on its approach to the war, saying Kyiv could not realistically hope to
return to previous borders or join NATO.&We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine
But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine&s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,& Hegseth told a meeting at NATO
&Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.&Russia in 2014 annexed Crimea, which Ukraine and many
Western countries consider to be occupied Ukrainian territory.Hegseth said any durable peace must include &robust security guarantees to
ensure that the war will not begin again&
troops would not be deployed to Ukraine as part of such guarantees.Zelenskiy, hoping to keep Trump interested in continuing to support his
country, has lately proposed a deal under which the United States would invest in minerals in Ukraine.Trump&s Treasury Secretary Scott
Bessent, in Kyiv on Wednesday on the first visit by a member of Trump&s cabinet, said such a mineral deal could serve as a &security shield&
for Ukraine after the war, read the report.Trump also said Rubio and Vice President JD Vance will hold talks about the war on Friday in
Munich, where Ukrainian officials were expected to attend an annual security conference.The new diplomacy followed a U.S.-Russia prisoner
swap that got under way on Tuesday, which the Kremlin said could help build trust between the two countries.Russia on Tuesday freed American
schoolteacher Marc Fogel, who was serving a 14-year sentence in a Russian prison, in exchange for a Russian cybercrime boss imprisoned in
the U.S., according to a official.The post Trump says Putin and Zelenskiy want peace; phone calls kick off talks to end Ukraine war first
