US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Tuesday (8) to discuss ending the war in Ukraine and a "large-scale" resumption of relations between the two countries, according to the Kremlin. The Russian government said the call lasted more than an hour and was "open and constructive". As of the latest update by g1, the US government had not yet commented on the conversation.
In Moscow's reading, the end of the war is the key to normalizing bilateral ties. "Trump emphasized the need to end the conflict in Ukraine, which would open prospects for a large-scale resumption of relations between Russia and the United States," said the official readout released by presidential aide Yury Ushakov and reported by g1. Putin also assured Trump that he has no "hostile plans" against Europe. The assurance arrives in a tense week: g1 reported that more than 20 European countries have recorded incidents with military drones during the war, including episodes in the airspace of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that feed accusations that Moscow is waging a "hybrid war" against the continent.
For Brazil, the effect is indirect but real. Any normalization between Washington and Moscow would reduce outside pressure on countries that never joined the isolation of Russia, including Brazil, which shares the BRICS group of large emerging economies with Moscow. The channel between Brasilia and the Kremlin remains open: on Sunday (7), the day Brazil celebrated its Independence Day, Putin sent greetings to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, according to the Russian presidency's official website. In the same week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is touring Trump's allies in Latin America with Brazil left off the itinerary. There is direct economic interest as well: Russia is among the main fertilizer suppliers to Brazilian agriculture, and a negotiated end to the war would tend to ease pressure on energy and input prices.
The Moscow-Kyiv shuttle
The call caps a week of intense diplomacy. Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Putin at the Kremlin on Friday (5), then held talks in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and left the capital on Sunday (6), according to Agência Brasil, with reporting by Reuters. To protect the mission, Moscow and Kyiv paused attacks on each other's capitals for three days. Hours after the envoys departed, Russia resumed bombing Kyiv with drones and missiles: three people were killed and 16 wounded, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko and Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi. "The moment the US president's peace envoys left, Putin launched another massive and terrible attack on Kyiv," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.
What each side wants
The war, now four and a half years old, has entered a decisive phase for its main players. Washington wants to close the European conflict while it confronts Iran, and said it destroyed five Iranian tankers near Kharg Island, g1 reported. Moscow treats the end of sanctions and a return to normal economic ties as the reward of a negotiated peace, and has not ruled out resuming tripartite talks with Ukraine and the United States, Reuters reported. Kyiv is asking allies for pressure on Moscow and interceptors for ballistic missiles, with air defense stocks critically low. In Europe, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which advocates rapprochement with Russia and an end to sanctions, won the state election in Saxony-Anhalt with about 44% of the vote, the first such victory in Germany since World War II, and Trump celebrated the result.
No new round of talks had been scheduled as of Tuesday night. Estadão reported growing optimism about the negotiations after the envoys' visit, and the phone call follows the channel opened when Trump and Putin met in Alaska last year, according to g1.