US President Donald Trump said he had a "long and extremely productive" conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

During the conversation, the two leaders agreed to "immediately" begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, AFP reported.

Trump tweeted on Truth Social that both had extended invitations to "visit each other's countries." The US leader said he would call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "right now" to brief him on the talks. 

The Kremlin confirmed that the phone call lasted an hour and a half and that Putin and Trump agreed that "the time has come to work together."

The Russian president told his American counterpart that a "long-term settlement" of the conflict in Ukraine triggered by Russia's invasion in 2022 was possible and invited the US president to Moscow, the Kremlin said. 

The conversation between the two leaders came after this week's prisoner swap, in which Moscow freed US teacher Mark Fogel and Washington released Russian cryptocurrency kingpin Alexander Vinnik.

Trump praised his Russian counterpart in a post on Truth Social, saying Putin "even used my very strong campaign slogan 'common sense.

He explained that "we both agree that we want to stop the millions of casualties in the war between Russia and Ukraine." The US president used an unconfirmed figure for the number of casualties in the war.

"We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other's countries," the Republican wrote.

"We have also agreed that our respective teams will begin negotiations immediately and we will begin by calling President Zelensky of Ukraine to inform him of the conversation, something I will do right now," he added. 

Trump announced that he had asked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and his Middle East envoy Steve Whitkoff "to lead negotiations that I am confident will be successful". | BGNES