US President Donald Trump announced that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin after his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders at the White House last week, according to AFP. Trump told reporters in response to a question about whether he had spoken with Putin since the August 18 meeting: “Yes, I spoke with him.” It is known that Trump interrupted his meeting with European leaders at the White House to make a phone call to Putin. Trump added in his statements that “every conversation I have with him is good, then unfortunately a bomb falls on Kyiv or elsewhere, which makes me very angry.” The US-European talks preceded a historic summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska in an attempt to reach an agreement to end the Russian war on Ukraine.

After their phone call, Trump announced a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelensky, but the Kremlin later announced there were no plans for such a meeting. In response to a question about why Putin hesitated to meet Zelensky face to face, Trump said: “Because (Putin) doesn’t like him.” Nevertheless, the US president confirmed he still believes an agreement to end the war is on the horizon. He said, “I believe we will end the war.”