Putin and Trump hold phone call after new round of Ukraine negotiations
US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held a phone call on Tuesday, September 8. The contact took place after Trump's representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow and Kyiv, where they tried to move negotiations on ending the Russian-Ukrainian war forward.
The call was announced by Russian leader's aide Yuri Ushakov. At the time of publication, the Russian side had not yet disclosed the duration of the conversation and the full list of topics discussed. The White House has also not yet released an official statement on the outcome of the call.
The phone contact was expected after the completion of a new diplomatic round. As early as September 7, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow did not rule out a call between Putin and Trump after the trips by US representatives.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Putin in Moscow on September 5. The talks lasted more than three hours. According to Ushakov, the Russian side presented its position on the war and possible options for a settlement to the US representatives.
After Moscow, Witkoff and Kushner traveled to Kyiv, where they held several rounds of talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on September 6. Representatives of European countries also participated in the discussions.
Following the trip, Witkoff announced significant progress, including on organizing new trilateral negotiations between Ukraine, the US and Russia. However, the exact date and location of the next round have not yet been determined.
Moscow allowed the possibility of resuming trilateral talks
On the eve of the Putin-Trump call, the Kremlin publicly admitted for the first time after a long pause the possibility of returning to a trilateral format involving Ukraine, Russia and the US.
Peskov said that Moscow does not rule out resuming such talks, but it is too early to talk about the location and specific dates.
Previous trilateral talks took place in early 2026. The parties held rounds in Abu Dhabi and Geneva, but failed to reach an agreement on key political issues. Territories and the conditions for a potential end to the war remain among the main points of contention.
After negotiations with the American delegation, Zelensky also confirmed Ukraine's readiness to participate in the further negotiation process. According to him, the absence of dialogue is worse than the existence of negotiation formats, even if not all of them suit Kyiv.
The Ukrainian president said that new proposals from the American side were discussed during the meeting with Witkoff and Kushner. Zelensky characterized some of the ideas as worthy of attention, but the details of potential agreements were not publicly disclosed.
The call followed trips by Witkoff and Kushner
The latest diplomatic activity in Washington began after Trump sent Witkoff and Kushner first to Russia and then to Ukraine. The American side is trying to determine the conditions for resuming the direct negotiation process after several months of de facto pause.
After the Moscow meeting, the Kremlin said that Putin and Trump would continue to maintain personal contacts, and the channel of negotiations through Witkoff and Kushner would remain.
At the same time, the mere fact of resuming contacts does not yet mean reaching an agreement. Moscow has not publicly announced abandoning its key demands on Ukraine, and Kyiv insists that any agreements must ensure the country's security and cannot be accepted without Ukraine's participation.
Thus, the phone call on September 8 became the next stage of diplomatic contacts after meetings between American representatives and both sides. It has not yet been reported whether the Putin-Trump call led to an agreement on a new round of talks or other concrete decisions.
Source: RIA Novosti, Kremlin, Office of the President of Ukraine
