US President Donald Trump has started a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on peace in Ukraine, Reuters writes.
A White House official said that the talks were continuing. Also about the beginning of the conversation reported the AP news agency.
Before that, White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt told reporters that Trump plans to call President Zelensky when this conversation is over.
“The president has made it clear that his goal is to see a ceasefire and an end to this conflict, and he is tired and frustrated on both sides of the conflict,” she said.
At the same time, a number of media outlets quoted sources as saying that the US president held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before his conversation with Putin.
Shortly before the call, US Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters that Washington recognises that there is a stalemate in ending the war.
“We recognise that there has been a definite stalemate here. And I think the president will say to President Putin:” are you serious? Are you sincere about that? I honestly think President Putin doesn’t quite know how to get out of the war,'” Vance said.
Trump announced the planned phone calls after Russian and Ukrainian representatives met in Istanbul for face-to-face talks. It was the first meeting between the two sides since the first weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
” The topic of the call will be stopping the “bloodshed,” Trump wrote in a social media post. – Hopefully it will be a productive day, there will be a ceasefire, and this very brutal war, a war that should never have happened, will end.”
The Istanbul meetings, which included separate conversations with U.S. officials, made little progress but led to an agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war. There was no commitment to a cessation of hostilities, and over the weekend Russia launched one of the largest drone strikes in Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian side.
Russian representatives in Istanbul reportedly made maximalist demands on Ukraine – calling for the withdrawal of its troops from areas partially occupied by Russia – and other conditions that were presented in the spring of 2022. Those conditions are rejected by Ukraine and many of its Western allies.
Since taking office in January, Trump has made ending Russia’s war against Ukraine a foreign policy priority. These efforts have been thwarted by Russia’s continued offensive operations on the battlefield and Moscow’s unwillingness to agree to the 30-day ceasefire that Kiev agreed to.
After a period of initial tensions with Kiev, White House frustration has shifted to Moscow, and the tone of public statements by U.S. officials has escalated. Trump has suggested that Putin has no real intention of seeking peace but is “just stalling for time”.
Last week, Zelensky travelled to Turkey with his negotiators and promised to meet Putin; they last met in 2019, before a full-scale war. But Putin announced at the last minute that he would not go to Turkey.
Zelensky also visited the Vatican over the weekend to seek support from newly elected Pope Leo XIV.The Ukrainian leader also met with U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Mark Rubio in Rome.
It was Zelensky’s first meeting with Vance since the acrimonious dispute at the White House in February.