US President Donald Trump has released the details of his phone conversation with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, which took place on 14 June, the American leader’s birthday. He wrote about it on his social media platform Truth Social.
“President Putin called this morning to wish me a very nice happy birthday, but more importantly to talk about Iran, a country he knows very well,” Trump said.
According to him, the conversation lasted almost an hour. The main part of it was devoted to the Middle East crisis, while the topic of the Russian-Ukrainian war received much less attention. “There was much less talk about Russia/Ukraine – that will be next week,” the US president said.
Separately, Trump noted that Putin is “working on the planned prisoner exchanges” – probably referring to the agreements reached in Istanbul. He also said that he and the Kremlin agree on the need to end the conflicts in the Middle East. “He, like me, believes that the war in Israel and Iran must end, and I explained that his war must also end,” the White House chief said.
Trump’s statement was the first public comment by the United States on the content of the conversation with Putin, which, according to Moscow, also concerned Iran’s nuclear programme, the exchange of prisoners with Ukraine, and general de-escalation.
