United Nations, Feb 13: The United Nations welcomes all efforts to resolve the Ukraine-Russia conflict and sees the phone call between the US and Russian leaders as a "positive thing," a UN spokesman said.

"What we would appreciate is any efforts to resolve the war in Ukraine that would involve the Russian and Ukrainian sides. And so obviously, if both of them are willing to be involved in a process, that would be a welcome development," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on Wednesday, speaking of the phone conversation.

"Given the importance of the United States and the Russian Federation, the UN welcomes any efforts to resolve issues through regular contact," the spokesman said at a daily press briefing, calling the conversation between the two leaders "a positive thing."

The White House and the Kremlin announced separately on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation, reports Xinhua news agency.

After his first official phone call with Russia's President Vladimir Putin after he became President, Trump posted on Truth Social, "We both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine."

After his call with Zelensky, he said, "A meeting is being set up on Friday in Munich, where Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead the Delegation."

They will be there to participate in the Munich Security Conference where foreign affairs, defence and security officials from many countries will participate.

Trump said Zelensky, "like President Putin, wants to make PEACE. We discussed a variety of topics related to the War."

When asked whether the UN will be part of the negotiations, Haq said, "We would have to see what role we would have to play. Obviously, as we've said many times over the last three years, the United Nations is willing to play a good office role if asked to by the parties."

--IANS

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