President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied discussing foreign aid to Ukraine during his high-stakes phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, contradicting a central claim the Kremlin made about the discussion.
The Context
Trump and Putin's call came after weeks of negotiations between American, Russian and Ukrainian officials about reaching a ceasefire agreement in the Russia-Ukraine war.
While the United States and Russia expressed a shared interest in de-escalation, the official readouts of the conversation diverged on key details, particularly regarding the scope of a ceasefire.
Putin agreed to a partial ceasefire-as opposed to a broader one, for which the U.S. and Ukraine had hoped-but only on the condition that Ukraine not rearm and that all U.S. military and intelligence aid to Ukraine be cut off.
What To Know
The Kremlin said in its readout that a "key condition" Putin laid out for working toward a long-term solution to the war was the "complete cessation of foreign military aid and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv."
But Trump told Fox News' Laura Ingraham the topic of aid to Ukraine never came up in their conversation.
The Kremlin said that Putin "demanded an immediate cessation of aid to the Ukraine in order to get to this multistep deal," Ingraham said, referring to the Kremlin's readout.
"No, he didn't," Trump said. "We didn't talk about aid, actually, we didn't talk about aid at all. We talked about a lot of things, but aid was never discussed."
This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available.
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This story was originally published March 18, 2025 at 7:47 PM.