President Donald Trump said negotiations to end the war in Ukraine would begin immediately after he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin this morning, the White House said. CNN.

The call, the first conversation between the presidents since Trump took office last month, came a day after Russia released an American imprisoned in the country.

Trump administration officials said they hoped the exchange could signal renewed efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, which is entering its fourth year.

In a readout of the conversation posted on Truth Social, Trump said: "We talked about Ukraine, the Middle East, energy, artificial intelligence, the power of the dollar and various other topics."

The Kremlin said Trump and Putin spoke for nearly 90 minutes.

Trump has signaled for weeks his desire to speak with Putin as he works to resolve the Ukrainian conflict.

"We have agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other's nations. We have also agreed that our respective teams will begin negotiations immediately and we will begin by calling President Zelensky, of Ukraine, to brief him on the conversation, which I will do right now," Trump wrote.

His predecessor, President Joe Biden, had not spoken to his Russian counterpart for nearly three years. The last US president to visit Russia was Barack Obama in 2013, when he attended the G20 summit.

Steve Witkoff, who will be among Trump's chief negotiators for the conflict, earlier on Wednesday pointed to the release of illegally detained American Mark Vogel as "an indication of what the possibilities are" for the future of Russia's war in Ukraine.

"I think that's maybe a sign of what that working relationship between President Trump and President Putin will be like in the future, and what it might represent for the world at large, for conflicts and so on. I think they had a great friendship and I think that's going to continue now and that's a really good thing for the world," he said.