President Trump on Friday wouldn’t say if he has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin since he began his second term but said there are ongoing discussions about ending the war in Ukraine.
“We’ll be speaking,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about whether he’s had a call with Putin. “We’ve been — we’ll be speaking and I think we’ll perhaps do something that will be significant. We want to end that war. That war would have never started when I was president.”
“And we are having discussions, yes,” he added, while taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office.
When asked if discussions are ongoing, the president replied, “already talking, yes.” But, when questioned about if that means he has already talked to Putin, he replied, “I don’t want to say that. But we are having very serious discussions.”
“I just don’t want to say that. We are having very serious discussions about that war, want to get it ended,” he added.
Trump has been seeking to pressure Putin into coming to the negotiating table to end the war since he was sworn-in last week.
A little more than 48 hours since returning to the White House, Trump said Putin is “destroying his country” with the nearly three-year war against Kyiv. He also threatened increased sanctions on Russia and its enablers if a deal is not quickly reached.
