President Donald Trump announced that negotiations to end the Ukraine war will begin immediately following a "lengthy and highly productive" phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday (February 12). This marks the first known conversation between the two leaders since Trump took office last month.

The call lasted nearly 90 minutes and covered topics including Ukraine, the Middle East, energy, and artificial intelligence.

Trump shared on Truth Social that he and Putin agreed to work closely together and plan to visit each other's countries.

"We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other's Nations. We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now. I have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful," Trump wrote.

In a follow-up post, Trump said he spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"I just spoke to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine. The conversation went very well. He, like President Putin, wants to make PEACE," he wrote.

In the post, Trump said that Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would head to Munich on Friday, where they will lead the delegation to begin talks to end the war.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also spoke about ending the war between Russia and Ukraine ahead of a meeting with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

"We will only end this devastating war and establish a durable peace by coupling allied strength with a realistic assessment of the battlefield," he told leaders of NATO and other Ukrainian officials.

Hegseth ruled out the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO and said that a return to the country's pre-2014 borders was "an unrealistic objective." He also noted that the continued security of Ukraine should be led by Europe and not the United States. He said the U.S. is realigning its resources to secure its border and counter the threat that China poses.

"As the United States prioritizes its attention to these threats, European allies must lead from the front," Hegseth said. "Together, we can establish a division of labor that maximizes our comparative advantages in Europe and the Pacific, respectively."

The Trump administration hopes that a recent prisoner exchange, which saw the release of American Marc Fogel and Russian Alexander Vinnik, signals renewed efforts to end the conflict.

The administration is also considering a deal with Ukraine to gain access to rare earth minerals in exchange for continued American support.

The Afternoon News with Kitty O'Neal