An End To The Russia-Ukraine War Could Lead To Renewed Washington-Moscow Ties, Kremlin Says

President Donald Trump told counterpart Vladimir Putin that a quick end to the Russia-Ukraine war could lead to a restoration of ties between Washington and Moscow, according to the Kremlin.

Russian aide Yuri Ushakov told state news agency Tass that the two presidents spoke on Tuesday, calling the conversation "constructive and very candid."

Trump said he wanted to end the war "as soon as possible," adding that such a scenario "would immediately open up impressive and far-reaching prospects for relations between the US and Russia to be fully restored." Putin, on his end, gave an "objective and thorough" picture of the state of the war.

However, Russia has resumed intense strikes against Ukraine following visits from U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Moscow and Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also addressed the state of the war after the visits, saying this week that the U.S. is exploring the possibility of de-escalating hostilities with Moscow during the winter and restarting diplomatic negotiations.

Speaking to Axios, Zelenskyy said Washington could make the push as he feels that Putin "needs" Trump and doesn't want to "upset him" ahead of the midterms. Asked if Putin could want to give Trump a win before, he said "yeah."

Zelenskyy said the message he got from the envoys was that "the Russians are ready to negotiate." And even though he is skeptical given Russia's recent escalation, he believes Putin is "ready to discuss" ideas to restart diplomacy.

"There are ideas around energy [facilities] and around grain [shipments], around electricity [facilities] and around oil and gas [exports]. We have different interests, Russia and we," he told Axios. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov also addressed the meeting, saying the envoys "formulated a number of ideas regarding possible paths to a settlement" but did not elaborate.

Witkoff, on its end, said they had "very meaningful discussion, substantive, important, and we're very encouraged." However, he noted that Kyiv and Moscow will need to make "compromises" to end the war.