US President Donald Trump has announced that he will hold a phone conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Monday, 19 May, followed by a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump said he intends to discuss “stopping the bloodshed” and trade with Putin. After that call, along with the Ukrainian president, they will talk with NATO officials.
“I hope it will be a productive day, a ceasefire will be agreed upon, and this very brutal war, a war that should never have happened, will end,” he wrote.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk had a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump on 16 May.
Before that, the first direct talks between Ukraine and Russian Federation in Istanbul in three years ended after about 90 minutes of dialogue. Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said after the talks that the topic of discussion was the exchange of prisoners and a cease-fire.