Trump made the call from his resort in Florida, where he reminded Putin of the United States’ sizeable military presence in Europe, a source familiar with the call said.
President-elect Donald Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine during a phone call on “the goal of peace on the European continent.”
It is the first conversation between the two since Trump’s 2024 election win, several sources told the Washington Post.
Trump made the call from his resort in Florida, where he reminded Putin of the United States’ sizeable military presence in Europe, a source familiar with the call said. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity.
They also discussed the goal of peace on the continent and Trump expressed interest in a follow-up conversation to discuss “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon,” sources said.
Trump campaigned on being able to bring an immediate end to the war in Ukraine. The former president said on several occasions that he knows “exactly” what he would say to both parties in order to find a resolution. He has suggested that he would support a deal where Russia keeps some of the territory it has gained during the Russo-Ukraine war.
At a CNN town hall in May 2023, Trump said: “They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done — I’ll have that done in 24 hours.”
Trump campaign’s communications director Steven Cheung said then that “a top priority in his second term will be to quickly negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine war.”
“Trump believes European nations should be paying more of the cost of the conflict,” Cheung said.
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