UPDATED 3:00 PM EST -- TRUMP HAS SPOKEN TO PUTIN - AGREE TO PEACE TALKS ! ! ! ! !

From President Donald Trump . . . 

"I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

We discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar, and various other subjects.

We both reflected on the Great History of our Nations, and the fact that we fought so successfully together in World War II, remembering, that Russia lost tens of millions of people, and we, likewise, lost so many!

We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together. But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine.

President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, “COMMON SENSE.” We both believe very strongly in it.

We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations. We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now.

I have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful.

Millions of people have died in a War that would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end.

No more lives should be lost!

I want to thank President Putin for his time and effort with respect to this call, and for the release, yesterday, of Marc Fogel, a wonderful man that I personally greeted last night at the White House.

I believe this effort will lead to a successful conclusion, hopefully soon!"

MORE:

I can confirm the telephone call between the two Presidents lasted slightly more than 90 minutes.

Putin invited Trump to Moscow and said he is open to hosting U.S. officials for negotiations.

The two leaders also agreed to set up a face-to-face meeting, though no date has been confirmed.

This was Putin’s first call with a sitting U.S. president since February 2022, when he spoke with Biden shortly before sending troops into Ukraine.

Trump repeatedly promised on the Presidential Campaign Trail, to negotiate a peace deal if re-elected. 

INTEL OBSERVATION: Interestingly, not included in President Trump’s announcement today, is Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia. 

Kellogg is considered one of the main “Hardliners” against Russia and Putin within the Trump Administration.  He is now, apparently, out of the loop - by design.  

UPDATE 1:08 PM EST --

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered news to Europe which clearly coordinated with President Trump's call with President Putin.

Hegseth told Europe America will no longer front the lion's share of aid to Ukraine.,

Europeans recoiled in horror, exclaiming this will be "a devastating blow to Kyiv that will pile pressure on Europe to fill the void."

Secretary Hegseth went farther.  He said that Washington will 'no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship' with its allies, adding that 'Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine'.

Then, the real sour news was delivered to Europe: the United States WILL NOT deploy troops to Ukraine under any peace deal with Russia - one of the key security guarantees requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Hegseth also said that it was unrealistic for Ukraine to expect to return to a pre-war state, saying any peace process 'must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective'.

'The United States remains committed to the NATO alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe, full stop,' he said. 'But the United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency.'

Washington's allies have been waiting nervously for clarity from Trump's administration after the he demanded that NATO more than double its defense spending target and vowed to end the war in Ukraine.  Today, they got that clarity.

UPDATE 3:00 PM EST --

The Kremlin has published its "Read-out" of the phone call between President Putin and President Trump.  

As shown below in a machine-translated image,he points claimed by President Trump ALIGN with what the Kremlin "read-out" says.   SO what we're being told by the White House ALIGNS with what we are now also being told by the Kremlin.

This is good.

In all matters geo-political, one can never __really__ be sure if the info coming out is accurate until BOTH sides say the same things; and that is what we have here, today.

For me personally, the best aspect of this is that the USA and Russia are now, officially, talking.  That is a huge step.   

The Biden regime wouldn't even TALK to the Russians.  It was immature, irresponsible, ignorant, deceitful, and very, VERY dangerous.  

Now that the United States has elected itself a REAL President, things are moving in a much better direction.

Will we agree on everything?  Doubtful.  That's what "negotiations" are all about.  Thankfully, the two countries are talking once again.  This is a big step.

Here now, the machine translated readout from the Kremlin:

PS:  The telephone call between President Trump and Zelensky "already ended" by 2:30 PM EST.  No word from either side (yet) on how THAT went.   I suspect not well, as Zelensky got the news.  I think the meme image below probably accurately shows how that call went: