Washington:
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he didn't think it was practical for Ukraine to join NATO and that it was unlikely that Ukraine would get his country back.
Trump discussed the war in Ukraine on Wednesday in phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodyyr Zenskiy, in the first major step of the US president in the direction of diplomacy he promised to end.
Trump said he and Putin expect in the future, probably in Saudi Arabia.
Trump described his call with Putin as a good conversation and said it took more than an hour. He made the comments to reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
The Zelenskiy office said that Trump and Zenskiy spoke for about an hour by telephone, while the Kremlin said that Putin took almost an hour and a half with Trump.
The Kremlin said that Putin and Trump had agreed to meet each other, and Putin had invited Trump to visit Moscow.
There had been speculation that the two leaders would meet in a third country, with Saudi Aarabia and the United Arab Emirates who, according to Russian sources, saw as possible locations.
In February 2022, Russia launched a complete invasion of Ukraine. It had annexed Crimea in 2014.
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