Western media commented on the conversation between Putin and Trump

Western media have commented on the telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US leader Donald Trump on 12 February.

The Politico newspaper called their talks a moment that Europeans and Ukrainians had been waiting for for several months. At the same time, as the publication noted, the conversation still came as a surprise to Ukraine's allies.

Reuters believes the call was Trump's first big step toward diplomacy in the Ukraine conflict, which he has promised to end. CNN TV channel, in turn, emphasized that after the resumption of direct dialogue between the countries, the contours of the American president's settlement plan become "clearer".

In addition, the Bloomberg agency also commented on the past events and noted that the approach of the current U.S. President sharply differs from the approach of Joe Biden. The publication drew attention to the fact that he has not communicated directly with Putin since the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict and focused on providing military and financial aid to Kiev in an attempt to increase his influence on Russia.

The Assosiated Press (AP) noted that it is still unclear how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (his term expires in May 2024) will be involved in the negotiations between Russia and the United States over the Ukrainian conflict and whether he will play any role at all.

"The fact that Donald Trump is reaching out to Vladimir Putin to start negotiations and doing so without Ukraine shows what place Ukraine has in any negotiations," Emmanuelle Chaz, a correspondent for France 24 TV channel, also emphasized.

Sense of contact: Putin and Trump agree on diplomatic solution to Ukraine crisis

In an hour and a half, they also discussed prisoner exchanges, the situation in the Middle East and the Iran nuclear deal

Earlier, on February 12, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin and Trump discussed many topics in a telephone conversation, such as the exchange of Russian and US citizens, the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict and the situation in the Middle East. The two presidents agreed that it is possible to achieve long-term peace in Ukraine only through peaceful negotiations. The Russian leader in his conversation with his US counterpart emphasized that the root causes of the conflict should be eliminated.

Trump, in turn, shared that he is united with Putin in the opinion that Washington and Moscow can get great benefits from working together. The American leader called the conversation productive and expressed hope that the dialog on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict will be successful.

On the same day, the American leader said he planned to meet with the Russian head of state in Saudi Arabia. At the same time, as Trump pointed out, the meeting has not yet been scheduled.

Before that, on February 11, the US President gave an interview to Fox News TV channel, where he said that his team had close contacts with representatives of Russia and Ukraine, which helped to achieve significant progress in the work on the peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian crisis.

Putin has repeatedly reminded that Russia has never given up on peace talks, but they should be conducted on the basis of the provisions agreed upon in Istanbul, not on the basis of "ephemeral demands."

The last round of talks between Russia and Ukraine took place in Istanbul on March 29, 2022. They lasted about three hours. Later, Kiev officially refused contacts with Moscow. On October 4, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (his term of office expired on May 20, 2024) enforced the decision of the country's National Security and Defense Council on the impossibility of holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.