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President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone for one hour on September 8, their first direct conversation following a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war. The call came just days after Trump’s envoys visited both Moscow and Kyiv with a revised peace proposal in hand.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov described the conversation as “constructive and quite candid.”
What the envoys brought to the table
The phone call was a follow-up to meetings held September 5 and 6, when Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner split duties across rival capitals. Witkoff sat down with Putin in Moscow on September 5, while Kushner met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv the following day.
Both carried updated versions of a 27-point peace plan. The document represented the latest iteration of Washington’s attempt to broker a resolution, though the specifics of its contents remain closely held.
Russia rejected proposals for a broader air truce, agreeing only to a temporary three-day cessation of strikes, limited to the window during which the American envoys were physically present in the region.
Zelenskyy called certain ideas presented by the envoys “very good, worthwhile,” but indicated he expected the conflict to continue well into winter, with Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure showing no signs of slowing down.
The diplomatic gap
During the phone call, Trump emphasized the urgency of reaching a resolution, framing it as a gateway to restoring broader US-Russia relations and expanding trade ties between the two countries. Putin offered his assessment of the battlefield situation and outlined steps he believed Washington could take to move the process forward.
Both leaders rated the envoys’ visits positively and confirmed the continuation of communication channels, floating the possibility of future trilateral talks involving Ukraine, Russia, and the United States.
Why the push is happening now
The renewed diplomatic activity follows a period in which the Russia-Ukraine conflict had slipped down Washington’s priority list. The US-Iran conflict consumed significant attention and resources, effectively putting the Ukraine peace process on ice for months. With that situation stabilizing, the Trump administration appears to be reviving its engagement with the war in Eastern Europe.
Russia’s willingness to agree only to a brief, symbolic pause in strikes, rather than the broader air truce Washington proposed, illustrates how far apart the parties remain on even preliminary confidence-building measures. Zelenskyy’s prediction of continued warfare into winter suggests Kyiv isn’t banking on a quick resolution either.
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