President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are in sync when it comes to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons, according to the White House. 

Trump and Putin, who spoke over the phone Tuesday morning about how to draw an end to the war in Ukraine, agreed that Iran must not obtain access to weapons permitting Tehran to obliterate Israel, the White House said. 

‘The leaders spoke broadly about the Middle East as a region of potential cooperation to prevent future conflicts,’ the White House said in a statement after the call. ‘They further discussed the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons and will engage with others to ensure the broadest possible application. The two leaders shared the view that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.’

Meanwhile, Russia is urging the U.S. to loosen its sanctions on Iran, which have crippled Tehran’s economy. Representatives from Russia met with Chinese and Iranian counterparts in Beijing Friday, and pressed the U.S. to withdraw the ‘unlawful’ sanctions and resume nuclear discussions, according to a statement from the three countries. 

‘The three countries reiterated that political and diplomatic engagement and dialogue based on the principle of mutual respect remains the only viable and practical option in this regard,’ China’s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu read aloud in a joint statement Friday. 

Russia has maintained a cozy relationship with Iran and has utilized Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine. For example, Russia started to employ the Iranian-made Shahed-131 and Shahed-136 series drones in 2022 to hit Ukrainian artillery targets and areas of Ukraine’s electricity distribution grid, according to the nonprofit organization Washington Institute for Near East Policy. 

The Defense Intelligence Agency also released a report in 2023 detailing how Iran had given Russia access to ‘hundreds’ of one-way attack air drones. Although Iran denied that the drones originated from Tehran, the Defense Intelligence Agency said it obtained debris from attacks in Ukraine that ‘clearly prove Iran’s support to Russia.’ 

Trump cautioned in February he believed that Iran was ‘close’ to developing a nuclear weapon, and his administration reinstated a maximum pressure campaign against Iran through sanctions targeting Iran’s oil exports in February. 

Additionally, Trump revealed March 7 that a nuclear deal with Iran could emerge in the near future and that he sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urging Tehran to agree to a nuclear agreement. 

Failure to do so could mean military intervention, he said. 

‘I would rather negotiate a deal,’ Trump told Fox Business in an interview March 9. ‘I’m not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily.’ 

‘But the time is happening now, the time is coming up,’ he said. ‘Something is going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran, and I’ve written them a letter saying I hope you’re going to negotiate, because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told the hosts of ‘The View’ on Tuesday morning that ‘oligarchs’ running the United States keep him up at night, despite his ties to the billionaire Soros family. 

‘I wake up at 3 in the morning sometimes so worried about the future of this country under these oligarchs,’ Schumer said on ‘The View.’  

Mega-donor George Soros donated millions to Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC during the 2024 election, and Schumer maintains a well-documented relationship with the billionaire’s son, Alex Soros. 

Campaign finance reports revealed Democracy PAC II, primarily funded by Soros, gave $2.5 million to Senate Majority PAC in 2024, Fox News confirmed. Democracy PAC II gave $3.5 million in calendar year 2022, and $2.5 million in calendar year 2021, for a combined $6 million, records show. 

A 2023 Fox News Digital review of Alex’s Instagram found dozens of pictures with top Democrats in the House and the Senate between 2018 and 2022, including at least nine meetings with Schumer.

‘Good to see majority leader [Schumer] earlier this week! Energized to elect at least two more Democratic senators so we can secure voting rights and a woman’s right to chose!’ Soros posted on his Instagram in July 2022 along with a picture of the pair.

In a December 2021 Instagram post, Alex called Schumer his ‘good friend’ and said he had a ‘great meeting’ with him at the Capitol. A few months earlier, Alex took a selfie with Schumer wearing a bicycle helmet and said it was ‘good to see our senate majority leader [Schumer] the other day, biking and in good shape, and so focused on [voting rights] legislation.’

A Fox News Digital review of visitor logs found Alex visited the White House six times from October 2021 to December 2022, during former President Joe Biden’s administration. A White House official confirmed to Fox News Digital that two of the visits were with Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff. 

Alex’s social media presence has consistently showcased his relationship with leading Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and candidates from the most contested down-ballot races of 2024, such as Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. 

Biden awarded George Soros with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January, which Alex accepted in his honor. 

‘His inspiring generosity reminds us all of our capacity and our obligation to stand up to the abuse of power and to be guardians of democracy and all people yearning to be free,’ Biden said during the ceremony. 

‘A travesty that Biden is giving Soros the Medal of Freedom,’ Elon Musk, who has been at the center of Democrats’ accusations of rising oligarchy, posted on X in response to Soros accepting the nation’s highest civilian honor. 

MoveOn.org, a group that has accepted millions from Soros and his Open Society Policy Center in recent years, led the ‘Congress Works for Us, Not Musk’ initiative that shut down town halls and Republican offices across the country. 

National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), a national organization on the forefront of the pro-Palestine Columbia University protests, accepted fiscal sponsorship from the Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation (WESPAC). Fox News Digital reported last year that WESPAC received a six-figure donation from a nonprofit funded by Soros’ network.

The Democratic Party also leaned on wealthy surrogates on the campaign trail in 2024. Former Vice President Kamala Harris hosted events with celebrities, including Beyoncé, Eminem, Bruce Springsteen and Mark Cuban. 

FEC filings show the Harris campaign made two $500,000 payments to Oprah Winfrey’s production company on Oct. 15, a month after Winfrey appeared with Harris at a town hall event and weeks before Oprah was on stage with Harris at a Philadelphia rally before election day.

Despite the Democrats’ own recorded ties to billionaire donors, the term ‘oligarchy’ has been used by Democrats to describe President Donald Trump’s second term. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has drawn thousands of supporters to his ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ rallies across the country, with stops in Michigan and Wisconsin this past weekend. The events are billed as an opportunity to ‘discuss how we take on the greed of the billionaire class and create a government that works for all and not just the few.’

Democrats were outraged by Trump inviting billionaires like Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg to his inauguration, and Biden used the term ‘oligarchy’ in his farewell address to the nation. 

‘Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,’ Biden told Americans on Jan. 13. 

Schumer defended his leadership on ‘The View’ following his decision to vote for a Republican spending bill to avert a government shutdown and subsequently canceling stops on his book tour over ‘security concerns.’

‘We are fighting them tooth and nail in every way we can, but you’ve got to fight them smart and if you led yourself into a shutdown, which, by the way, Musk, DOGE, Vought, they wanted a shutdown. They said they wanted a shutdown, and they thought we’d play into their hands,’ Schumer continued to ‘The View’ on Tuesday. 

Schumer said ‘MAGA right-wing Republicans,’ including Musk and Director of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought, wanted to shut down the government to deliver ‘tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.’

‘The MAGA right-wing Republicans dream of decimating the government. You know why they do it? They want tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. They want to destroy government, give it all to the wealthy and get rid of any regulations they might have, so I felt an obligation to stop it.’

Schumer said ‘a small group of wealthy, greedy’ Republicans are seizing power from the people and mocked Republicans who want to protect their hard-earned money from increased taxes. 

‘The Republican Party is a different kettle of fish than it used to be, and that’s why we’re fighting them so hard. They are controlled by a small group of wealthy, greedy people. You know what their attitude is? ‘I made my money all by myself. How dare your government take my money from me? I don’t want to pay taxes. I built my company with my own bare hands. How dare your government tell me how I should treat my customers, the land and water that I own, or my employees?’ They hate government. Government is a barrier to people, a barrier to stop them from doing things. They want to destroy it. We are not letting them do it. And we are united,’ Schumer said. 

Schumer’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Cameron Cawthorne, Andrew Mark Miller, Stephany Price and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

The White House does not have a list of banned words that are restricted from use in official documents, and instead charges individual agencies with word choice in government documents, Fox News Digital learned.

Media outlets in recent weeks have promoted reports that the Trump administration has banned hundreds of words from official documents, including words such as ‘diverse’ or ‘LGBTQ’ or ‘unconscious bias.’ 

An administration official told Fox Digital that the White House does not have a list of banned words. Instead, individual agencies hold discretion over word choice in compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive orders. 

Trump has signed 92 executive orders since his inauguration in January, including ones that have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the public and private sectors, as well as ones addressing transgender issues, such as banning biological men from playing in women’s sports or banning transgender surgical procedures for children. 

A handful of the executive orders rescinded Biden-era policies, such as ending DEI programs that were woven into the fabric of the federal government during his term. 

The New York Times reported that about 250 words were removed from the Trump administration’s lexicon or used with discretion. The list included a handful of words that could defy Trump’s executive orders on trans issues and DEI, including: ‘they/them,’ ‘breastfeed + people,’ ‘antiracist,’ ‘people + uterus’ or ‘confirmation bias.’ 

In February, the White House hit back on a report that Food and Drug Administration officials were instructing scientists to stop using words such as ‘woman,’ ‘disabled’ and ‘elderly’ in external documents, as they were on an alleged FDA list of banned words for the administration. 

A White House official told Reuters in February that the majority of words listed as allegedly banned did not need to be removed from external communications and documents, arguing the agency likely misinterpreted Trump’s executive orders on gender ideology. 

The White House specifically identified words such as ‘gender,’ ‘inclusion,’ ‘identity,’ ‘diversity,’ ‘intersex,’ ‘equity,’ ‘equitable,’ ‘transgender’ and ‘trans’ as ones that do not need to be prohibited in order to comply with Trump’s executive orders, according to Reuters. 

Presidential administrations have a long history of adjusting the language used in their official documents and external communications in an effort to realign the federal government with the administration’s policies and vision for the future. 

The Biden administration, for example, used the phrase ‘birthing people’ instead of ‘mothers’ in a 2022 budget proposal before the phrase — and similar ones such as ‘menstruators’ — were used by other federal officials and agencies. The Obama administration favored the phrase ‘undocumented immigrants’ versus ‘illegal immigrant’ in official text and presidential speeches.

PUNTACANA, Dominican Republic – A Dominican Republic judge on Tuesday evening ruled in favor of witness Joshua Riibe’s writ of habeas corpus in the March 6 disappearance of University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki from a Punta Cana resort.

Riibe appeared in court in the Dominican Republic, where he has been held in the disappearance of Konanki, 20, who has been missing since the early morning hours of March 6. Riibe has not been named a suspect in the case, which has been considered a missing person case and not a criminal one.

The 22-year-old appeared with his father as prosecutors argued that the witness’ freedom has not been limited while he has been held in the Dominican after his passport was confiscated, and he has the right to walk around the RIU Republica resort without issue.

It was not immediately clear when Riibe would be able to leave the country. Riibe will have another hearing on March 28, when he is expected to receive an explanation about the location of his passport. He can move freely within the Dominican Republic until then.

Riibe’s lawyers had said his passport was confiscated, but prosecutors argued that he lost his passport. Meanwhile, Dominican authorities returned Riibe’s friend’s passport on Tuesday afternoon.

Lawyers and prosecutors screamed at each other during a very heated hearing on Tuesday after Riibe’s counsel submitted photos of him surrounded by police and patrol cars.

Riibe is not paying for lodging; the RIU allowing him to remain there for free.

His lawyer, meanwhile, said the prosecutor is playing with the court and the public opinion. His lawyer claimed that Riibe always has police around for his safety.

The 22-year-old Iowa man and his father also had the opportunity to testify Tuesday.

‘Ever since my passport was taken, it’s very rare I’m alone.’

— Joshua Riibe

Riibe said on Sunday, he woke up and went to get breakfast, and when he returned to his hotel room, police ‘showed up saying that they were p—ed we didn’t tell them.’

He added that police eat with him, and officers went ‘crazy’ when he and his father went to the American embassy.

‘So we had to wait in the lobby for the tourist police to arrive to get escorted,’ he said. ‘That same day, I had another meeting, and when we grabbed lunch, the police [were] there. The issue is that we only have [one] method of communication, so every time they need us, we have to be in the room. I can’t go anywhere. I really want to be home. Hug my family and friends.’

Ribbe also said he ‘hugged’ Konanki’s parents before they left the Dominican and returned home to Virginia.

‘I understand there is an investigation, and I’ve cooperated, but haven’t been allowed to leave,’ he told the court on Tuesday. ‘When Sudiksha’s parents left, they said goodbye and even hugged me. She thanked me for saving her daughter the first time. All I’ve been doing is waiting in my hotel room to be interviewed but at this point. I just want to be home.’

Konanki went swimming in the ocean with the witness, identified as 22-year-old Riibe of Iowa, outside the RIU Republica resort in Punta Cana after drinking at a hotel bar. She has yet to be located.

Riibe has been detained in the Dominican since then and filed a writ of habeas corpus on Monday, challenging his de facto detention in the country. He arrived in court for a hearing Tuesday in which a judge will rule on whether he can return home, sources said.

The State Department confirmed to Fox News Digital earlier on Tuesday that it was assisting a witness in University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki’s March 6 disappearance from the Dominican Republic.

‘We take seriously our commitment to assist U.S. citizens abroad and are providing consular assistance,’ the State Department said in a statement when asked about Riibe’s Monday filing of a writ of habeas corpus. ‘Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.’

Konanki had gone to the beach with a group of seven other friends after a night of drinking. Six of her friends returned to the RIU Republica around 6 a.m., leaving the 20-year-old student alone with Riibe, who was also on spring break at the RIU Republica and is believed to be one of the last people to see her alive.

Riibe, who is considered a witness in Konanki’s disappearance, apparently told Dominican authorities that while they were swimming, a large wave crashed over them, according to a translated transcript of his interview to police shared with Fox News. 

He said he tried to help her and last saw her wading through knee-deep water. He then began vomiting up seawater and noticed that Konanki was no longer in sight and assumed she had returned to her hotel room. Riibe said he fell asleep in a beach chair before eventually returning to his room. 

Hotel surveillance footage shows Riibe returning to his hotel room around 9 a.m. on March 6.

Konanki’s parents, Subbarayudu and SreeDevi Konanki, are not disputing Riibe’s account of what happened, according to a letter they sent to Dominican police on Monday. Her father had previously asked police to investigate all possibilities.

‘Following an extensive search, Dominican authorities have concluded that Sudiksha is believed to have drowned,’ her parents wrote in a letter to La Policia Nacional, the country’s national police force, Monday night. ‘Her clothes were discovered on a beach near where she was last seen. The individual last seen with her is cooperating with the investigation, and no evidence of foul play has been found.’

They said they made the request after ‘much deliberation’ and thanked supporters for the international search effort.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia, where Konanki is from, issued a statement sharing her family’s belief that she drowned.

‘While a final decision to make such a declaration rests with authorities in the Dominican Republic, we will support the Konanki family in every way possible as we continue to review the evidence and information made available to us in the course of this investigation,’ the sheriff’s office said.

Riibe, a senior at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota who has not been accused of a crime but is considered a crucial witness in the case, has been held under surveillance at the resort since Konanki was reported missing.

His family has called his continued required presence in the country ‘irregular.’

Riibe is not accused of a crime, but authorities confiscated his passport while investigating his account of what happened.

Fox News’ Mara Robles and Nate Foy contributed to this report.

The Associated Press, not exactly a White House favorite, has shot itself in the foot.

The following retraction is nothing short of humiliating:

‘The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard saying President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘are very good friends.’ Gabbard was talking about Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The AP will publish a corrected version of the story.’

Whoa! How do you run that piece in the first place without having it nailed down?

The wire service, you may recall, is suing the Trump administration for ousting its reporters from the White House pool over its refusal to refer to ‘Gulf of America.’ So, this unforced error puts the White House in I-told-you-so mode.

On Monday, when Trump was at the Kennedy Center, an NBC reporter tried to ask a question, Trump asked, ‘Who are you with?’

After the journalist identified himself, the president said: ‘I don’t want to talk to NBC anymore. I think you’re so discredited.’ 

The Trump team later posted the exchange with ‘mic drop’ emojis.

The point is that Trump dominates the news no matter what he does. And, as I’ve been saying for the 35 years I’ve known him, even a torrent of negative publicity helps him because his media detractors are playing on his turf.

While Trump was visiting the Kennedy Center, he ‘floated’ the idea of personally hosting the annual awards show. And who’s going to stop him, since he’s purged the Democratic board members?

The ratings, he said, would skyrocket. And he’s right about that.

As the New York Times notes, a younger Trump dreamed of becoming a Broadway producer. He now says the Kennedy Center will concentrate on producing ‘Broadway hits.’

And by the way, Trump released 80,000 pages of JFK assassination files yesterday and has asked for no redactions.

The president can make news on the slightest whim, just by posting on Truth Social.

He just went after Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the deportations of mostly Venezuelan gang members to be stopped while planes were still in the air:   

‘This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!’ WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY.’

The posting drew a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts:

‘For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.’

The president is also renewing his habit of going after journalists personally. Ashley Parker had a highly successful career at the New York Times and Washington Post–she’s also an MSNBC analyst–who recently joined the Atlantic.

She asked Trump for an interview. 

After dismissing the liberal Atlantic as a ‘Third Rate Magazine,’ Trump posted:

‘Ashley Parker is not capable of doing a fair and unbiased interview. She is a Radical Left Lunatic, and has been as terrible as is possible for as long as I have known her. To this date, she doesn’t even know that I won the Presidency THREE times. If you have some other reporter, let us know, but Ashley is not capable or competent enough to understand the intricacies of High Level politics.’

Parker is restrained, not radical, and in bringing up the 2020 election, Trump is asking her to accept something that has never been proven in court or by his own attorney general.

A magazine spokesperson said, ‘Atlantic reporters are diligent and fair and continue to pursue stories of importance to the public.’

And then there is, you know, the actual job of the presidency. Trump reported yesterday on his 90-minute phone call with Vladimir Putin.

They ‘stressed the need for improved bilateral relations between the United States and Russia’ – no surprise there.

‘The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace…. 

‘They further discussed the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons and will engage with others to ensure the broadest possible application. The two leaders shared the view that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.’

And: ‘The two leaders agreed that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside,’ including ‘enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability.’

It seems to me that Trump got next to nothing. A 30-day pause in attacks on energy plants and infrastructure, that’s about it. Everything else is subject to negotiations, which gives the Kremlin more time to keep attacking Ukraine and lock in further territorial gains. A real cease-fire seems a long way off.

But whether Trump is on the attack or being attacked, he is driving the news every day, even inserting himself into culture and sports topics. Keep that in mind when the ratings-driven president hosts the Kennedy Center honors.

The U.S. State Department has ended funding for tracking thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, and a U.S. database with information on the victims may have been deleted, according to a letter U.S. lawmakers plan to send to Trump administration officials on Wednesday.

A group of Democratic U.S. lawmakers penned the letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, urging the administration to restore the program that helps track the abducted Ukrainian children.

The administration has ended a government-funded initiative led by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab that tracked the mass deportation of children from Ukraine, meaning researchers have lost access to a significant amount of information — including satellite imagery — on roughly 30,000 children kidnapped from Ukraine.

‘We have reason to believe that the data from the repository has been permanently deleted. If true, this would have devastating consequences,’ the letter, led by Ohio Rep. Greg Landsman, said.

News of the letter came on Tuesday, the same day U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who stopped short of agreeing to a 30-day truce in Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

A person familiar with the tracking program said the canceled State Department contract led to the deletion of $26 million in war crimes evidence.

‘They took $26 million of U.S. taxpayers money used for war crimes data and threw it into the woodchipper, including the dossiers on all the children,’ the person told Reuters.

‘If you wanted to protect President Putin from prosecution, you nuke that thing. And they did it. It’s the final court-admissible version with all the metadata,’ the person added.

The letter to administration officials also calls for sanctions to punish officials in Russia and its ally Belarus who are involved in abducting children.

‘These egregious, openly acknowledged violations of the rights of children afforded under international law demand consequences,’ the letter said.

Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab also no longer has access to the satellite imagery needed to track the abducted children, according to the lawmakers.

‘Our government is providing an essential service – one that does not require the transfer of weapons or cash to Ukraine – in pursuit of the noble goal of rescuing these children. We must, immediately, resume the work to help Ukraine bring these children home,’ the letter said.

Ukraine has described the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without parental consent as a war crime that meets the U.N. treaty definition of genocide.

Russia has claimed it has been evacuating people voluntarily to protect vulnerable children from being caught in the crossfire.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Lvova-Belova and Putin in connection with the abduction of Ukrainian children, a move Russia denounced as ‘outrageous and unacceptable.’

Eurojust, Europe’s agency for criminal cooperation, said on Tuesday it learned the U.S. government was ending its support for the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, which was collecting evidence to prosecute Putin and others. The U.S. special prosecutor at Eurojust, Jessica Kim, would leave as part of the move.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Tuesday to stop attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, but the 30-day ceasefire still leaves many significant issues unresolved. 

The temporary truce did not include any protections for troops fighting on the front lines or for Ukrainian civilians who continue to live through Russia’s constant aerial bombardments. 

Putin’s preliminary agreement came after a 90-minute phone conversation with President Donald Trump, who took to social media afterward and described it as ‘very good’ and ‘productive.’

‘We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine,’ he said. ‘That process is now in full force and effect, and we will, hopefully, for the sake of Humanity, get the job done!’

Trump later told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on the ‘Ingraham Angle’ that pushing Putin further in a ceasefire ‘would have been tough. Russia has the advantage.’

Speaking to Sean Hannity on Tuesday, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to discuss the details of Tuesday’s agreement between the two leaders.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions, but in a message posted to X he said, ‘Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire.’

‘It would be right for the world to respond by rejecting any attempts by Putin to prolong the war,’ he continued, highlighting Russia’s continued attacks on Ukrainian civilians, including on Tuesday when a Russia-fired Shahed drone hit a hospital in Ukraine’s Sumy region.

‘Sanctions against Russia. Assistance to Ukraine. ‘Strengthening allies in the free world and working toward security guarantees,’ Zelenskyy listed as steps the Western world can take to counter Putin. ‘Only a real cessation of strikes on civilian infrastructure by Russia, as proof of its willingness to end this war, can bring peace closer.’

The Trump administration has argued that true negotiations can only begin once a ceasefire has been secured, though it remains unclear how negotiations will proceed with no truce that includes civilian protections from Russia’s aerial attacks.

Neither the State Department nor the White House responded to Fox News Digital’s questions on why the president believes Putin ‘wants to make peace’ — which Trump accused Zelenskyy of not being ‘serious’ about when he attempted to negotiate security guarantees for Ukraine last month.

Officials from NATO and the EU were also tight-lipped following the call between Trump and Putin.

Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire last week following an hours-long meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security advisor Mike Waltz, which the pair said they would then ‘take to the Russians.’

While Washington was short on the details of the negotiations agreed to by Kyiv, Zelenskyy said the U.S. had pushed for a full ceasefire along the front lines, in the air and on the Black Sea — a push Trump was apparently unable to secure in his Tuesday discussions with Putin.

Zelenskyy said his delegation had also discussed the ‘release of prisoners of war and detainees — both military and civilian — and the return of Ukrainian children who were forcibly transferred to Russia.’

While the Kremlin on Tuesday said Putin had agreed to a 175-prisoner swap with Ukraine, there was no mention of the 20,000 Ukrainian children Kyiv has reported to have been forcibly abducted, largely from Luhansk and Donetsk, and then funneled through adoption schemes in Russia.

There are a litany of issues that still need to be negotiated between Ukraine and Russia, which the U.S. has said Europe will also be a part of.

Putin has already made clear Ukraine should not be allowed to join NATO — which the Trump administration has also backed over concerns it could not only perpetuate but escalate the nature of Russia’s war.

European leaders and Zelenskyy have argued that peacekeeping troops should then be placed in Ukraine to prevent Russia from launching a future invasion — but Moscow has also already signaled this will be viewed as a threat to Russia.

Issues over Western arms supplies, international observance of Russian occupied lands, Ukraine’s future security, Ukrainian troops in Kursk and Russia’s continued aerial campaigns over civilian populations all remain major issues that need to be negotiated. 

‘Putin doesn’t share Trump’s abhorrence of war,’ former CIA Moscow Station Chief Dan Hoffman told Fox News Digital. ‘At this point there’s no indication that he’s going to do anything else but negotiate with an eye towards ensuring Ukraine can’t deter future Russian attacks.’

Hoffman also argued that the Trump administration needs to be careful about finding itself in a situation where Washington wants a ceasefire more than Moscow.

‘The strategic objective is still to destroy Ukraine,’ Hoffman said. ‘The question is, Putin has not agreed to a ceasefire, so what are you going to do about?’ 

‘Define success by what serves U.S. national security interests. A bad deal would not serve our interests,’ he added. 

‘Let them go negotiate,’ Hoffman said.