Trump, Putin talk on phone about US negotiators' visits

Russia said its president and his US counterpart have held telephone talks in connection with US negotiators' visits to Russia and Ukraine amid stalled peace talks.

An aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Yuri Ushakov, said Tuesday that the two leaders discussed the results of visits by President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, the US president's son-in-law. The two Americans have been working to mediate peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.

Ushakov said Trump expressed willingness to end the conflict in Ukraine soon and stressed that he wants to see a breakthrough achieved during his presidency.

Trump is also said to have expressed his view that if the fighting ends, prospects for a full restoration of US-Russia relations will "immediately open up." He also said ending the war would have "huge benefits for both nations."

Ushakov said Putin "praised the mediation efforts by the US and Donald Trump personally with respect to finding solutions to the Ukrainian conflict." The Russian president also explained the battlefield situation to Trump.

Ushakov said the phone talks lasted about one hour, and that they were "constructive and quite frank." He added that the results of the visits by the two US negotiators were "assessed as positive."

The US made no immediate announcement about the phone talks. Observers are focusing on whether progress can be made amid stalled peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.