US President Donald Trump said he encouraged Vladimir Putin to conclude his war in Ukraine and rebuffed an offer from his Russian counterpart to help secure Iran’s nuclear material.
“He told me he’d like to be involved with the enrichment if he can help us get it. I said, ‘I’d much rather have you be involved with ending the war with Ukraine,’” the US president told reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday.
Calling the conversation with Putin “very good,” Trump said he suggested “a little bit of a ceasefire” in the Ukrainian conflict to the Russian leader.
The Kremlin account of the call said Putin offered a temporary truce for the for the annual celebration of the World War II victory over Nazi Germany, which Russia marks on May 9.
The phone call came at a key moment for Trump, who has struggled to bring the Ukraine conflict to an end despite pledging during his 2024 campaign to do so quickly. And he has also been unable to reach a lasting peace deal with Tehran in the war he started alongside Israel in February.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov called the conversation “friendly, frank and businesslike,” saying it lasted for more than an hour and a half. Speaking in an audio recording posted on social media by state television, Ushakov said the discussion focused mainly on Iran and Russia offered some proposals that could help resolve the conflict over Tehran’s nuclear program. He didn’t elaborate or mention Trump’s response.
Putin said he supported Trump’s decision to extend a truce with Iran to allow time for more negotiations, Ushakov said.
On Ukraine, Ushakov didn’t say how long the proposed truce would last.
Earlier Wednesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said the annual Red Square military parade on May 9 would take place without armored vehicles or missile systems for the first time since 2007 “due to the current operational situation.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the decision had been taken to minimize potential threats to the event from Ukraine, which has conducted near-daily drone attacks in Russia recently.
US-led peace talks between Ukraine and Russia have stalled as the Trump administration focuses its attention on the Middle East war.
With assistance from Jennifer A. Dlouhy.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
