Trump told Putin he wants swift end to Ukraine war and US-Russia ties restored, Kremlin says

MOSCOW: Donald Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Tuesday (Sep 8) that he wanted a swift end to the war in Ukraine, which would allow US-Russia ties to be fully restored, the Kremlin said, adding that Putin had supported the US president's view. The call, which the Kremlin said lasted an hour, followed a weekend visit to Moscow and Kyiv by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are trying to revive stalled talks designed to find a way to end the fighting. Their weekend diplomacy did not appear to result in any immediate public breakthrough although they did raise the possibility that three-way talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States could be resumed. The Kremlin, which has said it does not rule that out, made no mention of the possibility in its readout of the Putin-Trump call. Instead, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that the two leaders had rated the US envoys' weekend diplomacy "with a plus sign" and that Putin had told Trump what he believed the United States could do to help end the conflict and given him an assessment of what the situation on the battlefield was. Trump, Ushakov said, had made it clear he wanted the war quickly finished. "Donald Trump clearly emphasised the desirability of bringing the conflict to an end as soon as possible, which would immediately open up prospects - impressive and far-reaching ones at that - for the full restoration of relations between the US and Russia," said Ushakov.