Trumps Begins Working to End the War Between Russia and Ukraine
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You're listening to State of the World from NPR, with the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Wednesday, February 12th. I'm Greg Dixon. In separate phone calls, President Trump spoke to the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump's 90-minute call with Putin was the first such contact between the leaders of the U.S. and Russia since before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Following the calls, Trump said on social media that both Putin and Zelensky want peace. And he said he wanted negotiations to end the war between the two countries to begin immediately.

For more on what these calls could mean, we're going to hear from NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben. She spoke to Elsa Chang. OK, so what do we know about what happened in this phone call between Trump and Putin? Well, Trump announced it in a late morning social media post. And later on, he told reporters that in the call they focused on Ukraine and agreed that the war should end.

He also said he expects that he and Putin will talk on the phone again soon and that they could meet in person in the not-too-distant future. In fact, we expect...

that he'll come here and I'll go there. And we're going to meet also probably in Saudi Arabia the first time we'll meet in Saudi Arabia, see if we can get something done. And often on the campaign trail, he talked about this. He said he would end the Russia-Ukraine war quickly, though he didn't provide details on how. But in this post, he wrote he was downright effusive. It was a pretty long post. But

That's in contrast with how Biden talked about Putin. Biden called him a thug and a murderous dictator. Right. OK, well, these talks that they're going to have. Is Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is he going to be there as well? That is not clear from what Trump said this afternoon. He was noncommittal at best about that. In fact, he was asked by a reporter whether he sees Ukraine as an equal partner in the peace process. And Trump didn't say yes. He just said it's an interesting question.

He also, though, volunteered that Ukrainian President Zelensky is not popular in his own country. Well, he's going to have to do what he has to do. But, you know, his poll numbers aren't particularly great.

So during wartime, Ukraine has not been holding elections. But now that Trump's in office, both the U.S. and Russia have now talked about it being time for elections to start again. And that is making Ukraine nervous. But one more thing here. We know that today Trump did follow up with Zelensky after the call with Putin. He said his call went this call went very well. And

and that they discussed a meeting coming up on Friday between Zelensky and Vice President Vance. Okay. Well, Danielle, there's a lot of context going on here, right? Like the U.S.'s relationship with Russia and especially Trump's relationship with Putin. How does all of that play into understanding what's happening here? Well, a U.S. president talking to Russia is always news, especially given Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. reaction to it at the time. As you'll remember, Biden cut off contact with Russia after the invasion.

So given all of that, Trump now talking to Putin on the phone, especially before he talked to Zelensky, that's a big deal. Biden's view on this was nothing on Ukraine without Ukraine. Well, this is not that. To zoom out here, the Trump-Putin relationship, it's been closely scrutinized ever since Russia interfered in the 2016 election. It really hung over Trump's first term. And Trump has praised Putin many times, which is part of his pattern of praising authoritarian leaders.

Trump, for his part, though, has always tried to turn that criticism on its head, saying it's good that he's friends with Putin and that the relationship just gets a lot of unwarranted attention. OK, so do we know anything more about what negotiations will look like?

Well, Trump said in his post that he has a team of people that are going to lead the negotiations, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But then again, Trump also said that he himself will be a big part of it all. So we'll see on that. But he did say he's agreed with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

who today told European allies that it's unrealistic for Ukraine to go back to its pre-2014 borders before Russia invaded then and annexed Crimea. He also said it's not realistic for Ukraine to join NATO. Neither of those things will make Ukraine happy. So we'll see what comes of that.

That is Ampere's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thank you, Danielle. Thank you. As Danielle just mentioned, Trump's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made comments about future U.S. assistance to Ukraine, speaking at a meeting of NATO allies in Brussels. Terry Schultz tells us more. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth came to NATO headquarters emphasizing that President Trump was looking to end Russia's war on Ukraine and to preserve what he called a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine.

But to do that, the defense secretary warned, there would be some harsh implications for Kyiv. We must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering. In other words, it appears the U.S. is saying Russian President Vladimir Putin should be allowed to keep most of the Ukrainian land he seized.

in violation of international law, in annexing Crimea a decade ago, and since the full-scale invasion three years ago. That's an idea that's been mentioned occasionally as a potential worst-case scenario for Kyiv, or a temporary one, but not something touted as a solution.

Hegseth said Europeans would have to provide most of the weapons for Ukraine going forward. And then after a ceasefire agreement is reached, Hegseth said, the U.S. would neither contribute to any peacekeeping force on the ground, nor let NATO's Article 5 security guarantees protect those troops in case of attack. And there was more. The United States does not have

believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement. This despite the fact that all NATO allies, including the U.S., have agreed that Ukraine will become a member of NATO over Vladimir Putin's objections. This is how NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte put it in December. There is an irreversible path to NATO membership.

And it is also clear for me and I think for all allies that Putin has no vote and no veto on Ukrainian membership of NATO. But former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrieli S. Landsbergis says the positions Hegseth has just articulated, which could be the starting point for Trump-brokered talks between Putin and Zelensky, seem to change all the parameters. Irreversibility...

Sounds like an empty promise now. And honestly, it doesn't look like very much of negotiation. It looks more like an ultimatum to Ukraine to accept a situation with no real security guarantees, no NATO Article 5, no troops on the ground. He says that would leave Ukraine vulnerable to new attacks. For a frontline country like Lithuania, which borders Russia, that's a matter of its own national security. Fortunately for Lithuania, it has NATO security guarantees.

But Landsbergis says he's worried how much those are worth if the alliance doesn't stand behind its promises to help Ukraine fight Russia and to let it eventually join. It is a test how NATO will function.

and attests to NATO's credibility. He hopes at the very least the Nordic and Baltic countries will band together and maintain support for Kyiv. But in the meantime, Landsbergis says he's sure there are champagne corks popping in the Kremlin. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz at NATO headquarters in Brussels. That's the state of the world from NPR. Thank you for listening.

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