I had an excellent phone call with President Putin that lasted for over two hours.

We discussed a lot of points, and I do think we're getting a lot closer, maybe very close. We are getting a lot closer, maybe very close.

We've done very well. We had discussions on just about every subject, that includes with Putin before.

We went into great detail, and we likewise went into great detail today.

I hope you enjoyed the food,

Your people enjoyed the food, your big strong people.

We will speak over the next couple of weeks quite a bit, but we will speak tomorrow.

20-point peace plan, 90% agreed.

US-Ukraine security guarantees, 100% agreed.

U.S.-Europe-Ukraine security guarantees almost agreed.

Military dimension 100 percent agreed.

We agreed that our teams will meet in upcoming weeks to finalize all discussed matters.

We agreed with President Trump that he will host us and European leaders maybe in Washington in January.

Ukraine is ready for peace.

You can say 95%, but I don't like to say percentages.

There are one or two very thorny issues, but I think we're doing very well.

That one is unresolved, but we are getting closer to an agreement on that.

That's certainly one of the big issues. It's unresolved, but it's getting a lot closer.

We can have referendums on any kind of point of this plan.

If the plan will be very difficult for our society, of course our society has to choose and has to vote because it's their land, the land not of one person. It's the land of our nation for a lot of generations.

You'll probably have to get their plan approved by Parliament or by referendum of the people.

91% of Ukrainians want this war to end.

Russia also wants it ended. Everybody wants it ended and we want it ended.

I want it ended because I don't want to see so many people dying. We're losing, you know, massive numbers of people — the biggest by far since World War II.

I saw a very interesting Putin today; he wants to see it happen. He told me very strongly.

I believe him.

I really believe we're by far closer [to a deal] than ever before.

When Zelensky was close, Putin was not.

When Putin was close, Zelensky was not; you saw that in the White House.

But I think both want to see it happen.

Russia is going to help. Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed. It sounds a little strange.

President Putin was very generous in his feelings toward Ukraine succeeding, including supplying energy, electricity, and other things at very low prices.

A lot of good things came out of that call with Putin today.

Putin does not agree to a ceasefire. He feels that, if they have to stop the fighting and then start again, he does not want to be in that position, and I understand that position.

I understand President Putin from that standpoint. You know, you have to understand the other side.

If things don't happen, they keep fighting, and they keep dying.

Zelensky does not want that to happen, we don't want that to happen, and Putin does not want it to happen.

But every time I knock out a boat, we save 25,000 American lives. It's very simple. And what's happening is they're having a hard time employment-wise; they can't get anybody.

I don't know if you read or saw, but they [Venezuela] have a big plant or a big facility where the ships come from. Two nights ago (December 24), we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard.

But drugs are down over 97 percent. Can you believe it?

I always tell my Christian and Catholic brothers: can you imagine our Lord Jesus Christ being physically here with us?

Would He approve of bombings? The killing of children in Gaza? Would He approve of military threats against a Christian people like the Venezuelans?

Would He approve of the use of force, or even the threat of the use of force? It is the most contrary thing to Christ.