United States President Donald Trump has signalled a major shift in three years of US policy towards Kyiv, saying that he and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had spoken by phone and agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine.

Trump said he spent more than an hour on the phone with Putin on Wednesday, and “I think we’re on the way to getting peace”.

He noted that he later spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but he was noncommittal about whether Ukraine would be an equal participant in US negotiations with Russia on ending the war.

“I think President Putin wants peace and President Zelenskyy wants peace and I want peace,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Recounting his call with Putin, Trump said: “People didn’t really know what President Putin’s thoughts were. But I think I can say with great confidence, he wants to see it ended also, so that’s good – and we’re going to work toward getting it ended and as fast as possible.”

The US president said they had agreed to “work together very closely, including visiting each other’s nations” and to “have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” on Ukraine.

Trump said that he would “probably” meet in person with Putin in the near term, suggesting that a meeting could take place in Saudi Arabia.

Asked specifically about Ukraine being an equal member in a potential peace process, Trump responded, “Interesting question. I think they have to make peace.”

Trump’s conversation with Putin may also signal that Washington and Moscow could work to hammer out a deal to end fighting in Ukraine by going around Kyiv, a development that would break with the previous Biden administration, which had steadfastly insisted that Ukraine’s leadership would be a full participant in any decisions made.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskyy appeared to put on a brave face saying that Trump had informed him of his conversation with Putin and that he appreciated the US president’s “genuine interest in our shared opportunities and how we can bring about a real peace together”.

“We believe that America’s strength, together with Ukraine and all of our partners, is enough to push Russia to peace,” he later wrote on social media.

I had a long and detailed conversation with President Trump. I appreciate his genuine interest in our shared opportunities and how we can bring about real peace together.

We discussed many aspects—diplomatic, military, and economic—and President Trump informed me about what… pic.twitter.com/flmigxqtbl

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 12, 2025

NATO chief Mark Rutte said Ukraine must be involved in peace talks and any final deal needs to be “enduring”.

“Of course, this is crucial – [when] we talk about Ukraine, that Ukraine is closely involved in everything happening about Ukraine,” Rutte told journalists ahead of a meeting of alliance defence ministers.

Mariia Zolkina, head of regional security and conflict studies at the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, warned the importance of the call for ending the conflict should not be overstated.

“Trump is not following his presidential electoral promises, where he said he would be putting pressure on both sides,” Zolkina told Al Jazeera. “We don’t see any pressure on Russia but rather sympathising and soft rhetoric about finding the common ground.

“This doesn’t make Russia interested in any solution, even in a ceasefire,” she said.

Ukraine NATO membership ‘unrealistic’

Earlier, in another blow to Kyiv, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at NATO headquarters in Brussels that Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO was unrealistic.

“We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,” Hegseth said at the NATO meeting.

“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” he said.

Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 and it is still considered occupied territory by Ukraine and many Western countries.

Hegseth said any durable peace must include “robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again”. But he said US troops would not be deployed to Ukraine as part of such guarantees.

Trump said later about NATO membership for Ukraine: “I don’t think it’s practical to have it, personally.”

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Biden administration joined other NATO members in declaring that Kyiv’s membership in the Western military alliance was “inevitable”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the conversation between Trump and Putin covered a good deal of ground, including the Middle East and Iran, but that Ukraine was the main focus.

Peskov said Trump had called for a quick cessation of hostilities and a peaceful settlement, and that “President Putin, in his turn, emphasised the need to remove the root causes of the conflict and agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement could be achieved through peace talks”.

“The Russian president supported one of the main theses of the US president that the time has come for our two countries to work together,” Peskov told reporters.

“The Russian president invited the US president to visit Moscow and expressed readiness to host US officials in Russia for issues of mutual interest, naturally including Ukraine, the Ukrainian settlement.”

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said it was “regrettable” Trump’s administration had made “concessions” to Russia before peace talks on Ukraine had even started.

“In my view, it would have been better to speak about a possible NATO membership for Ukraine or possible losses of territory at the negotiating table,” Pistorius said ahead of the NATO meeting.

France’s defence minister warned that NATO faces a moment of reckoning on its future.

“It’s a crucial moment of truth,” Sebastien Lecornu told reporters ahead of the same meeting in Brussels. “People call it the most important, the strongest military alliance in history. That’s historically true – but the question is, will it still be true 10 or 15 years from now.”

Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was in Kyiv on Wednesday on the first visit by a member of Trump’s cabinet amid reports that Ukraine has offered to strike a deal with Trump for continued US military aid in exchange for developing Ukraine’s mineral industry.

Trump has suggested that aid to Ukraine would continue to flow, but the treasury secretary was in Ukraine working to get written assurances that the US would get access to its rare earth elements and oil and gas.