DONALD Trump has said that he will “work closely” with Russian despot Vladimir Putin as the two hold talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
Putin launched a full-scale invasion of the eastern European nation in February 2022, and Russia now controls swathes of land in the country – including the annexed Crimea.
Trump’s defence secretary, former TV presenter Pete Hegseth, said on Wednesday that Ukraine recovering all of its lost territory was not a “realistic” outcome – and also ruled out the nation joining Nato.
In the wake of Hegseth’s comments, Trump said he and Putin have agreed to begin “negotiations” on ending the Ukraine war and will “work together, very closely”.
Putin has invited the US president to visit Moscow after the two held a 90-minute phone call, and he will also visit the US, Trump said.
“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.”
The call followed a prisoner swap that resulted in Russia releasing American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, of Pennsylvania, after more than three years of detention. Alexander Vinnik, a convicted Russian criminal, is being freed as part of the swap.
During Trump's previous tenure as US president, he made global headlines after backing Putin over his own intelligence services.
After a meeting in Helsinki in 2018, Trump contradicted FBI intelligence that Russia had meddled in US elections.
"President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be," Trump said.
"No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant," senior Republican senator John McCain said at the time.
In 2019, the Washington Post reported that, after meeting with Putin in Hamburg in 2017, Trump took his interpreter’s notes and ordered him not to tell other US officials what had been discussed.
The US president's fondness for strong-man leaders like Putin will spark concerns that he will offer huge concessions to Russia amid negotiations on Ukraine.
Nick Harvey, a former LibDem MP and UK armed forces minister, said: "If the US is ditching support to Ukraine before its hoped-for negotiations have even begun, we can see fairly clearly where they are trying to take them. It smacks of blackmail.
"Ukraine would do better to keep hold of its mineral rights, and make a brutal assessment of who its friends are. In the long run, after a resolution to the war, it might be perfectly reasonable for European countries to take the lead in protecting Ukraine - as long as that is within the framework of NATO membership.
"But, up to that point, it is essential for the democratic world to stand by Ukraine and not consort with its enemies."
