Neither Trump Nor Putin Wanted To Hang Up On Their Cosy Phone Call, Russia Says

Neither Donald Trump nor Vladimir Putin wanted to hang up after speaking on the phone for 90 minutes, according to the Kremlin.

The US president agreed to a new trade deal with Russia on the call, undoing years of united western efforts to impose economic sanctions on Moscow meant to pressure Putin to stop his war in Ukraine.

Russia has agreed to release 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately “to the American and global marketplace” followed by 500,000 tonnes in November with a further one million to follow.

The US is also suspending sanctions on Russian diesel exports until April 7.

This deal has devastated Ukraine as Kyiv needs the US to put pressure on Moscow to end the brutal conflict.

The Kremlin said most of Trump and Putin’s chat was focused on how to resolve the war in Ukraine – but it hardly sounded like the US president was reprimanding Russia for its aggression against its European neighbour. 

According to Kremlin foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, neither world leader wanted to end the “very substantive and friendly” conversation.

He said: “Neither wanted to be the first to hang up. They hung up simultaneously, literally at the same time.”

Trump also piled praise on Putin when speaking to reporters overnight – and lambasted Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who called the new deal a “weak decision”.

The president said: “Russia would like to make a [peace] deal. As I said, this is something that could have been resolved many times, but for whatever reason, Zelenskyy does not want to make a deal.

“If you look at the odds, you’re talking about billions more soldiers on one side than the other.

“It would have been smart if he had made a deal two years ago, he would have been a lot better off.”

He said: “President Putin would like to see a settlement, strongly. He’s freeing up a lot of oil for the world. OK? That’s a good thing. And by the way, at a very low price.”

Trump also repeated a Kremlin talking point by calling for an election in Ukraine, even though doing so would breach the country’s martial law, which has been in place since 2022.

UK defence secretary Wes Streeting said: “The cost of living is high on the public’s agenda in this country, elsewhere. And no doubt President Trump wants to respond to that.”