WASHINGTON: Donald Trump held a lengthy phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and subsequently spoke to NATO leaders after the U.S. president’s Friday summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the White House said.
Trump held the calls on his way back to Washington, landing in the early hours of Saturday morning.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was among those on the call, in which Trump briefed European leaders about the summit, von der Leyen’s spokesperson said. A NATO official said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also took part, while the Elysee confirmed French President Emmanuel Macron’s participation.
Leaders from Germany, Finland, Poland, Italy and Britain also joined the call, according to the European Commission.
Axios reporter Barak Ravid said, citing a source, that Trump spoke for more than an hour and a half with Zelenskiy and European leaders.
Zelenskiy later said he would travel to Washington on Monday.
The highly anticipated summit in Alaska yielded no agreement to resolve or pause Russia’s war in Ukraine, although both Trump and Putin described the talks as productive before heading home.
During a brief appearance before the media following the nearly three-hour meeting in Alaska, the two leaders said they had made progress on unspecified issues. But they offered no details and took no questions. Trump also did not take questions when he landed in the United States at Joint Base Andrews.
During his presidential campaign and upon taking office, Trump had vowed to quickly end the war in Ukraine that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 but has thus far failed to deliver on that promise – REUTERS
