After his call with Putin, Trump spoke only of agreeing “to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately,” a phrase that seems inclusive only of Trump and Putin. That Ukrainian fear of, at least, the initial exclusion in negotiations seems to have been confirmed by a later statement by Trump that a meeting between he and Putin would happen in the “not too distant future.” Trump said that “We ultimately expect to meet. In fact, we expect that he’ll come here, and I’ll go there, and we’re gonna meet also probably in Saudi Arabia the first time, we’ll meet in Saudi Arabia, see if we can get something done.” When asked by a reporter if that meant the meeting with Putin would be held without Zelensky, Trump responded, “probably we’ll have a first meeting, and then we’ll see what we can do about the second meeting.”

Though Trump has said that he will go to Moscow and that Putin will come to Washington, when asked by a reporter whether he committed to going to Ukraine, he said, “No, I haven’t committed to going to Ukraine.”

Trump’s phone calls with Putin and Zelensky, and the statements he made after, make it clear that the isolation of Russia is over. They also suggest that the first round of negotiations on terms to end the war may be conducted between the U.S. and Russia with Ukraine being excluded. Those terms, Hegseth has suggested, may grant Russia its key demand of no NATO membership for Ukraine.