Trump makes plans to meet Putin and end Ukraine war as he says 'the US wants its money back'

12 February 2025, 22:25 | Updated: 13 February 2025, 00:40

Donald Trump has said that the US will seek to claw back some of the money that it has sent to Ukraine, as he agreed to meet with Vladimir Putin and begin negotiations to end the war.

The US president said that the US wanted to get back a part of the money it has provided to Ukraine since the invasion in 2022 "in some form".

Earlier his treasury secretary visited Ukraine and said that the US could provide a "security shield" to Ukraine in exchange for $500 billion (£402 million) in rare earth minerals.

It comes after Trump and Putin had a 90 minute phone call in which they agreed to meet and begin negotiations to end the three-year war.

His Secretary of Defence said earlier that European countries would now have to provide "the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine".

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Mr Trump told reporters that the US had spent $350 billion (£281 billion) on Ukraine, which far outstrips the official US figures. According to a US government oversight body, the total response so far comes to around $183 billion (£147 billion).

"We're putting up far more money than Europe and Europe is in far more danger than we are," Mr Trump said.

"We have an ocean in between, Europe has nothing in between. You know what they have in between? They have Ukraine in between."

He added: "We're asking for security on our money. Ukraine has agreed to it."

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Referring to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's Kyiv trip, Trump said he was "going there to get a document done where we're going to be assured that we're going to, in some form, get this money back."

He added: "We're getting security on our money. We're going to have it secured... they have raw earth and they have oil and gas and they have a lot of other things, and we're asking for security in our money."

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Discussing his phone call with Putin earlier, Trump said: "We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other's nations," Trump posted on social media.

The pair agreed to have "our respective teams start negotiations immediately" where the war in Ukraine is concerned.

Trump said later that he expected to meet Putin in Saudi Arabia. He said he was unsure when the meeting would be but that it would take place in the not-too-distant future.

The president also said he believed Putin "wants peace".

"We want to end that war, that war is a disaster," he added.

Trump told reporters: "I'll be dealing with President Putin largely on the phone and we ultimately expect to meet.

"In fact, we expect that he'll come here, and I'll go there, and we're going to meet also probably in Saudi Arabia the first time we'll meet."

He also said that Ukraine joining NATO was not "practical", echoing earlier comments by his Secretary of Defence. The president said it was unlikely that Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders, before Russia invaded Crimea and supported an insurgency in the Donbas.

Putin last spoke to a sitting U.S. president in February 2022, when he engaged in a call with Joe Biden over troops in Ukraine.

"We will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now," Trump said on Wednesday.

Trump claimed the leaders both "believe very strongly" in common sense and have also committed in a phone call to visit each other's countries.

The US president also spoke to Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy of their conversation and denied that he was freezing him out of talks.

"The fact he was on the phone with both President Putin and President Zelenskyy today shows he is actively involved in negotiations," Karoline Leavitt told the media during a White House press conference on Wednesday evening.

At a Nato meeting in Brussels earlier in the day, America's defence secretary said Europe should be "empowered" to "own responsibility for its own security".

Following Trump's comments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed the pair's call "was a very long telephone conversation" that "lasted almost an hour and a half".

"The heads of state discussed matters related to the exchange of Russian and US citizens," Mr Peskov said.

"The US President assured that the American side would fulfil all the reached agreements. The topic of Ukraine settlement was also discussed.

"President Trump spoke in favour of the rapid cessation of hostilities and the solution of problems through peaceful means.

"President Putin, for his part, mentioned the need to eliminate the root causes of the conflict and agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement can be achieved through peaceful negotiations.

"The Russian President invited the US President to visit Moscow and expressed readiness to receive American officials in Russia regarding areas of mutual interest, including, of course, the topic of Ukrainian settlement," Mr Peskov continued.

"Putin and Trump also agreed to continue personal contacts, including setting up a personal meeting,” he added.

It comes hours after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth labelled Ukraine's Nato membership plans an "unrealistic" prospect.

The defence secretary also confirmed that US troops will not act as peacekeepers on the ground in Ukraine.

Hegseth added that Washington will "no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship" with its allies.

He added that "Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine".

"The United States remains committed to the NATO alliance and to the defence partnership with Europe, full stop," he said.

It is not entirely clear how this impacts the UK's approach to Ukraine.

A spokesperson for the government said on Wednesday evening: "We share President Trump's desire to bring this barbaric war to an end. 

"Russia could do this tomorrow by withdrawing its forces and ending its illegal invasion.

"We have always said we will support Ukraine to achieve a just and lasting peace."

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner told LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr that "we're not going to change our position", despite Mr Trump's comments.

She said: "We've been really clear, and the previous government was clear on this as well: The illegal war in Ukraine by President Putin is completely unacceptable. We'll continue to support Ukraine to put them in the best possible position to defend their land."

Former Conservative Armed Forces minister James Heappey also told Andrew that Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine "have every right to feel a sense of betrayal."

He added that if European countries had worked harder at being independent from the US militarily, then the war could have continued without Trump's support.

"But Europe hasn't mobilised in that way," he added, "and so this withdrawal of support from the US and Trump seeking to sit down with Putin and do this deal between the two of them means that Europe will be forced, I think, to accept the terms or whatever peace they negotiate.

"But let's be clear, it's a peace that will hold for as long as Putin wishes it to. There's every chance he reheats the war subsequently, and even if he doesn't, this becomes a new security paradigm for the whole continent of Europe."