By Nandita Bose and Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he did not think it was practical for Ukraine to join NATO and that it was unlikely Ukraine will get back all of its land.
Trump discussed the war in Ukraine on Wednesday in phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in the U.S. president’s first big step toward diplomacy in a conflict he has promised to end.
Trump said he and Putin expect to meet in the future, probably in Saudi Arabia.
Trump described his call with Putin as a good conversation and said it lasted over an hour. He made the remarks to reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
Zelenskiy’s office said Trump and Zelenskiy spoke by phone for about an hour, while the Kremlin said Putin’s call with Trump lasted nearly an hour and a half.
The Kremlin said Putin and Trump had agreed to meet, and Putin had invited Trump to visit Moscow.
There had been speculation the two leaders would meet in a third country, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates seen as possible venues, according to Russian sources.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It had annexed Crimea in 2014.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose; writing by Kanishka Singh in Washington, Editing by Franklin Paul and Rod Nickel)
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