WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he would hold a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day after the U.S. said it would pause the delivery of some weapons to Ukraine as the Pentagon conducts a review of its munition stockpiles.
Trump announced the call with Putin in a Truth Social post. A White House official said a call was not scheduled to take place on July 3 with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Putin is ‘misguided’ Trump says: Trump says Putin is ‘difficult’ on Ukraine war, calls Russian leader ‘misguided’
The U.S. president met with Zelenskyy behind closed doors at the end of last month during a NATO Summit in The Hague. He acknowledged at a news conference after that Putin had been “more difficult” to negotiate with than he once thought. He noted that he’d also had “some problems” with Zelenskyy.
“I consider him a person that’s, I think, has been misguided,” Trump said of Putin. “I’m very surprised, actually, I thought we would have had that settled easy.”
He spent an hour on the phone with Putin on June 14. The conversation that fell on Trump’s birthday was mainly about the conflict with Iran over it’s nuclear program, the U.S. president said at the time.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump holds call with Putin after pausing some weapons transfers to Ukraine
