President Trump says he is planning to meet with President Putin in Saudi Arabia to discuss a peace plan for Ukraine, following a discussion today with the Russian leader. In a 90-minute phone call the two “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately,” Mr. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. It was the first time in three years that the leaders of Russia and America talked.

“We want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Mr. Trump wrote. “President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, ‘COMMON SENSE.’”

Later, Mr. Trump talked for one hour by phone with Ukraine’s president, Volodomyr Zelensky. Mr. Trump reported: “The conversation went very well. He, like President Putin, wants to make PEACE.”

Almost at the same time, Mr. Trump’s new Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, was at Brussels spelling out the new Administration’s Ukraine policy to leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The blunt message to Ukraine was: no NATO membership, no American boots on the ground, more European involvement, and no return to pre-war borders.

“The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Mr. Hegseth said, conceding a position that the Kremlin has set as a pre-condition for talks. Mr. Hegseth said any durable peace must include “robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again.” However, he clarified they “must be backed by capable European and non-European troops.”

“We’re also here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe,” the American defense secretary said, echoing a growing perception in Washington of a Chinese threat. 

Recognizing the largely stalled battle lines of the last year, he added: “We must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective.”

Yesterday, in an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Mr. Zelensky proposed a land swap. Ukraine would give up its occupation of 250 square miles in Russia’s Kursk region for unspecified Ukrainian land under Russian occupation. Today, the deputy chairman of Russia’s powerful Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, dismissed the proposal as “nonsense.”

As more North Korean troops arrive in Kursk, Russian officials are adamant that Ukraine will not use its control of the area as a bargaining chip at peace talks. “Russia has never discussed and will not discuss the exchange of its territory,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow today. “Ukrainian units will be expelled from this territory. All who are not destroyed will be expelled.”

Mr. Trump said the American negotiating team will include: Secretary Rubio; the CIA director, John Ratcliffe; the National Security adviser, Michael Waltz; and the president’s Middle East special envoy, Steve Witkoff. 

On Monday, Mr. Witkoff flew to Moscow and won the release of an American history teacher, Marc Fogel, who had been jailed on drug charges. Although the release was part of a prisoner exchange, it was seen as a goodwill gesture by Mr. Putin.

Missing from the talks team is the retired lieutenant general, Keith Kellogg, the President’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia and long an advocate of a strong defense of Ukraine. General Kellogg’s daughter, Meaghan Mobbs, is president of the R.T. Weatherman Foundation, a charity that ships medical aid to Ukrainian hospitals.

General Kellogg is to be in Munich this weekend for the Munich Security Conference. There, he will caucus with European leaders about support for Ukraine. Also at the conference, Ukraine and America plan to sign a bilateral security and economic agreement.

Today, Mr. Zelensky met at Kyiv with Secretary Bessent. The two men discussed Ukrainian mineral and rare earth deposits. Mr. Trump has said he seeks access to the deposits as a future “security” for American aid to Ukraine. Reflecting the transactional nature of the Trump Administration, the Treasury secretary is the first cabinet-level official of the new government to visit Kyiv.