Trump wants Russia – Ukraine ceasefire to progress ahead of calls with Putin
President Donald Trump hopes to call separately Monday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to advance a ceasefire in the Ukrainian war.
Trump expressed his hopes for Monday’s “productive day” and a ceasefire in a social media post over the weekend. His efforts will also include phone calls from NATO leaders.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to the media on Monday that Putin and Trump will speak at 10 a.m. ET, saying the dialogue is “important, given the talks last week in Istanbul”. Last week, negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials were the first since March 2022.
Trump has been working to end a war that began with the Russian invasion in February 2022, making these conversations a serious test of his reputation as a trader, after he claimed that once he returned to the White House, he would quickly resolve the conflict, not even before he took office.
The Republican president is relying on the idea that his strong personality and personal history with Putin is enough to undermine any deadlock in the battle.
“His sensitivity is that he has to speak to President Putin on the phone, which will clear some logjam and take us where we need to get there,” Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said. “I think it will be a very successful call.”
Trump's frustration was built due to failure to end the war
Still, there are concerns that Trump has affinity for Putin, which could put any agreement designed by Ukraine with the U.S. government at a disadvantage.
Bridget Brink said she resigned from the resignation of Ukraine’s ambassador to Ukraine last month, “because the policy that the government has started is to put pressure on Ukrainian victims, not on the invaders, Russia.”
Brink said the sign she needed to leave was a February Oval Office meeting where Trump and his team publicly condemned Zelenskyy because they didn’t have enough respect for them.
“I believe that any price peace is not peace at all,” Brink said. “It's a kind of foot, and as we know from history, it only leads to more wars.”
Ukraine in Istanbul – Russia's peace talks ended less than two hours later, with no ceasefire agreement, although both sides did agree to prisoner exchanges. Ukraine and its allies accuse Russia of making unrealistic demands.
Trump's frustration with the war has been socializing on his Saturday's truth about the upcoming call.
Trump said his discussions with Putin would focus on stopping the “bloody” of the war. It will also cover trade, suggesting that Trump may be seeking to use economic incentives to promote some kind of deal as the Russian invasion has resulted in serious sanctions from the United States and its allies, which has steadily eroded Moscow's ability to develop.
According to the Post, Trump's hope is that “a war that will never happen will end.”
His Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday at NBC See the media Trump has made it clear that Putin's failed “sincere” negotiations could lead to additional sanctions against Russia.
Bessent suggested that sanctions that began during the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden were insufficient because they did not stop Russian oil revenues because of fears that doing so would raise U.S. prices.
The United States is trying to limit Russia's oil revenues while preserving the country's oil exports to limit the damage caused by the war's inflation.
There is no ceasefire, but a prisoner exchange
Putin recently rejected Zelenskyy's proposal to meet in Türkiye to replace a 30-day ceasefire urged by Ukraine and its Western allies, including Washington.
The negotiations ended on Friday less than two hours later, with no ceasefire. Still, the two countries are committed to exchanging 1,000 prisoners of war with Ukraine’s intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, who said on Ukrainian TV on Saturday that the exchange may have happened early this week.
Trump said Friday that Putin did not go to Turkey when summarizing his four-day trip to the Middle East because Trump himself was not there.
“He and I will meet, I think we'll solve it, or maybe not,” Trump told reporters after arriving on the Air Force. “At least we'll know. If we don't solve it, it'll be very interesting.”
Zelenskyy met with Trump's vice president JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday in Rome, strengthening his efforts ahead of Monday's call.
The Ukrainian president said on social media site X that during talks with U.S. officials, they discussed the negotiations in Turkey and that “the Russians sent a low-level delegation of non-decision makers.” He also said that he stressed that Ukraine was engaged in “real diplomacy” to cease fire.
“We also talked about the need for Russia, bilateral trade, defense cooperation, battlefield situations and the upcoming prisoner exchange,” Zelenskyy said. “There is a need for pressure on Russia until they are eager to stop the war.”
The German government said Prime Minister Friedrich Merz and French, British and Italian leaders spoke with Trump later on Sunday about the situation in Ukraine and his upcoming call with Putin. The brief statement did not provide details of the conversation, but said the plan was to continue the communication directly after the Trump-Puding call.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post about X on X that Putin must make a statement on Monday that he hopes to peacefully accept the 30-day unconditional ceasefire proposed by President Trump and to receive support from Ukraine and Europe. ”
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday that the Kremlin launched the largest drone barrage against Ukraine since the Kremlin began its full invasion in 2022, and the Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday that a total of 273 explosions of drones and baits were fired. These attacks target the country's Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
