US President Donald Trump said yesterday Russia and Ukraine will immediately start ceasefire negotiations in the three-year-old conflict, but he did not appear to secure major concessions from President Vladimir Putin during a two-hour phone call.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he relayed the plan for talks to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as well as the leaders of the European Union, France, Italy, Germany and Finland in a group call following his session with Putin.
“Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the war,” Trump said, adding later at the White House he thought that ‘some progress is being made’.
After speaking to Trump, Putin said efforts to end the war were ‘generally on the right track’ and that Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a potential peace deal.
“We have agreed with the president of the US that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord,” he told reporters near the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
European leaders and Ukraine have demanded Russia agree to a ceasefire immediately, and Trump has focused on getting Putin to commit to a 30-day truce.
Putin has resisted that, insisting that conditions be met first, and apparently gave no ground yesterday. Remarks from the Kremlin leader and Trump indicated a ceasefire will be discussed alongside a broader peace accord.
Former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt said on X the call with Trump was ‘undoubtedly a win for Putin’. The Russian leader ‘deflected the call for an … immediate ceasefire and instead can continue military operations at the same time as he puts pressure on at the negotiating table’.
Trump said the Vatican, ‘as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations. Let the process begin!’ The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the conversation with Trump was ‘good’ and it was ‘important that the US stays engaged’.
Ukraine and its supporters have accused Russia of failing to negotiate in good faith, doing the minimum needed to keep Trump from applying new pressure on its economy in the form of additional sanctions.
Prodded by Trump, delegates from the warring countries met last week in Istanbul for the first time since 2022, in the early months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Istanbul talks failed to produce a truce. Prospects for progress dimmed after Putin spurned Zelenskiy’s proposal they meet face to face in Istanbul, and Trump said there would be no movement unless he and Putin met.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters Putin and Trump discussed what the US leader called ‘impressive’ prospects for ties between their countries and adding that Russia and the US are working on a new prisoner swap.
US Vice President JD Vance, who was visiting Rome earlier repeated a warning that Washington could walk away from the peace process without progress. Vance said: “We’re eventually going to say: ‘You know what? That was worth a try, but we’re not doing any more.’”
Putin said the memorandum Russia and Ukraine would work on about a future peace accord would define “a number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement.
“The main thing for us is to eliminate the root causes of this crisis,” Putin said. “We just need to determine the most effective ways to move towards peace.”
Trump, who has promised to bring a swift end to Europe’s deadliest war since the Second World War, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire after three years when Washington joined other Western countries in arming Ukraine.
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