Trump and Putin hold one-hour call on Ukraine after US envoys' Moscow and Kyiv trips

Why it matters

The call represented the highest-level US-Russia contact since the envoys' back-to-back visits to Moscow and Kyiv and came amid reports that Putin's negotiating position has not changed since the November 2025 US peace plan. While Trump publicly described the conversation as productive, the ISW and multiple Western officials assessed that the Kremlin has not shifted its demands, and reporting from the period suggests the war is expected to continue into 2027 with intensified Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure during winter. The fact that Trump spoke with Putin but had not yet spoken with Zelensky by phone was highlighted by Ukrainian commentators as a troubling imbalance in US engagement.

What happened

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Tuesday, September 8, for one hour, according to Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, who announced the call via TASS. The conversation focused on the results of US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner's trips to Moscow on September 5 and Kyiv on September 6.

Ushakov said Trump pressed for a quick end to Russia's war against Ukraine and expressed interest in achieving a peace breakthrough during his presidency. Putin, per Ushakov, 'positively assessed' US mediation efforts, told Trump Russia has no aggressive plans toward Europe, and presented what Ushakov called an 'objective and thorough analysis' of the war. The two agreed to continue work on humanitarian issues, including prisoner exchanges, and to stay in contact.

The call came at the end of a high-profile envoy mission. Witkoff and Kushner met Putin in the Kremlin on September 5 in a session that Russian media said lasted more than three hours, then traveled by train to Kyiv on September 6 — their first visit to Ukraine since talks on ending the war began. In Kyiv, they held three rounds of talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian negotiating team, which included Office of the President head Kyrylo Budanov, Rustem Umerov, Davyd Arakhamia, and deputy head of the OP Serhiy Kyslytsia. National security advisors from Germany, France, and the UK joined the second round — a development the Kremlin said could 'complicate' the process. During the visit, the envoys were given a short tour of St. Sophia Cathedral, over Russian objections.

Witkoff said the envoys heard 'new ideas' in Moscow that did not previously work, which they conveyed in Kyiv, and described 'substantial progress' including planning for additional trilateral talks. Zelensky called the Kyiv meetings 'substantive' and said the envoys' goal was to 'unblock' the diplomatic process, discussing security guarantees, economic support, air defense supplies, and a winter aid package. Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the talks, reported a more skeptical picture: that the Moscow meeting produced no significant progress, that Putin did not change his war plans, and that he made the US delegation wait until evening before meeting them.

The White House had not commented on the call at the time of reporting.

How Ukrainian sources describe it

Ukrainian outlets heavily cited the ISW assessment that Putin used the September 8 call to push a distorted picture of the battlefield shaped by systematic lies from Russian military leadership, and that his negotiating position has not changed since the US 28-point peace plan of November 2025, even as battlefield conditions have reportedly shifted in Ukraine's favor. Ukrainian coverage foregrounded the fact that Trump spoke with Putin but had not yet spoken with Zelensky by phone, framing this as a worrying imbalance that allows Russia to keep feeding Trump its own version of events. Bloomberg's reporting — that the Moscow meeting produced no significant progress and that Putin plans to intensify strikes on Ukrainian energy and heating infrastructure during winter, with the war expected to continue into 2027 — was widely cited, and contrasted with Witkoff's positive public framing. Ukrainian sources also highlighted allied support measures, including European plans to procure US Patriot missiles through NATO's PURL mechanism and US Deputy Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby's remarks at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group that allies must prepare for a prolonged conflict. Several Ukrainian outlets used loaded descriptors for Putin such as 'Russian dictator.'

How international sources describe it

International outlets, including South China Morning Post and Al Jazeera Arabic, covered the call in more neutral terms, leading with the Kremlin's framing that the conversation was 'positive,' 'frank,' and 'constructive' and with Trump's public characterization of the call as 'great' and his claim that Putin wants to make a deal. International coverage centered the diplomatic choreography — the one-hour duration, the focus on the envoys' trips, Putin's assertion that Russia has no aggressive plans toward Europe, and the stated agreements to continue humanitarian work and stay in contact — without the skeptical analytical overlay common in Ukrainian reporting.

Where reporting differs

Sources disagree on whether the envoys' trips produced meaningful progress: Witkoff publicly described 'substantial progress' including planning for additional trilateral talks, while Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the talks, reported the Moscow meeting produced no significant progress and Putin did not change his position.

Trump publicly called the call 'great' and said Putin wants to make a deal, while the Institute for the Study of War and Bloomberg sources assessed that Putin used the call to push a distorted picture of the battlefield and that his negotiating position has not changed since the November 2025 US peace plan.

The Kremlin and Witkoff pointed to planning for additional trilateral talks, while Bloomberg sources reported serious negotiations are unlikely to begin until at least 2027 and that trilateral talks could resume after Russia's September 18–20 State Duma elections without significant movement toward a peace deal.

Background

US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow on September 5, meeting Putin at the Kremlin in a session that Russian media said lasted more than three hours; they then traveled by train to Kyiv on September 6 for meetings with the Ukrainian negotiating team and President Volodymyr Zelensky. During the Kyiv meetings, national security advisors from Germany, France, and the UK joined the second round of talks, prompting the Kremlin to say such participation could 'complicate' the process. Ukraine and Russia agreed not to strike each other's capitals during the period of the visits, at least through September 7. Trump and Putin previously met in Anchorage, Alaska on August 15, 2025. The US previously proposed a 28-point peace plan in November 2025 that was viewed as favorable to Russia; analysts note Putin's position has not changed since then, even as battlefield conditions have reportedly shifted in Ukraine's favor. Russia's State Duma elections were scheduled for September 18–20, a backdrop cited in reporting about the timing of the diplomatic activity.