Trump Phones Putin and Zelensky Before Ankara Summit
President Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin for 85 minutes and separately to Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, two days before NATO leaders gather in Ankara. The Kremlin said the presidents “naturally addressed the issue of a settlement in Ukraine”, with Putin claiming his forces were “advancing confidently”. Zelensky called it a “very good phone call”: “There is a real prospect to put an end to this war, and America’s resolve is decisive. We have agreed to continue these discussions during the NATO Summit in Ankara.”
The choreography matters: a call to both capitals on the eve of the alliance’s first post-war summit puts Trump in the mediator’s chair just as Europe prepares a €70bn-a-year aid pledge to keep Ukraine armed. The substantive gap has not moved — Moscow still demands Ukrainian withdrawal from all of Donetsk, which Kyiv rejects outright — and Putin’s battlefield confidence sits awkwardly beside this week’s unverified Kostyantynivka claims and spreading fuel shortages at home. Iran and the Middle East also featured, linking the two wars Trump wants credited as ending. Watch whether Ankara produces a meeting structure — or merely another round of calls.