Trump says he will speak to Putin on the phone Monday
President Donald Trump will speak on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin on ending the Ukraine war, the US president announced.
The announcement comes after representatives from Ukraine and Russia held face-to-face talks in Turkey on Friday. It was the first time the two countries held direct talks at any level in three years.
Trump has previously said he doesn’t think there will be a significant breakthrough on peace talks until he and Putin speak directly.
“I don’t believe anything is going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,” Trump told reporters earlier this week.
Trump says he plans to speak with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and various members of NATO after he talks with Putin.
“HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY, A CEASEFIRE WILL TAKE PLACE, AND THIS VERY VIOLENT WAR, A WAR THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED, WILL END,” Trump wrote Saturday.
Ukraine, its allies in Europe and the US had pressured Moscow to accept a US-backed 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Putin denied that request and instead called for direct talks last Thursday in Turkey between the nations, which Trump firmly urged Zelensky to accept. Zelensky, however, said he would go only if Putin showed up. The Russians sent a delegation that Zelensky deemed “low-level,” and Putin did not show up for talks.
Ukraine ultimately sent a delegation too, which led to the nations’ first talks since 2022, resulting in an agreement on swapping 1,000 prisoners.
Trump told reporters while traveling in the Middle East earlier this week he didn’t expect Putin to show up to the talks in Turkey if Trump wasn’t there.
“Look, nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together, OK? And obviously he wasn’t going to go. He was gonna go, but he thought I was gonna go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there,” Trump said aboard Air Force One.
On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressing the US commitment to ending the conflict, according to State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.
“Secretary Rubio welcomed the prisoner exchange agreement reached during the May 16 Ukraine-Russia talks in Istanbul and delivered President Trump’s strong message: the United States is committed to achieving a lasting end to the Russia-Ukraine war,” Bruce said in a statement. “The comprehensive peace plan proposed by the United States outlines the best way forward. The Secretary emphasized President Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the violence.”
After the call with Lavrov, Rubio posted on X, “The U.S. has presented a strong peace plan and we welcome the Prisoner of War exchange agreement reached in Istanbul. Let’s not miss this huge opportunity. The time for ending this war is now.”
In an interview with Fox News on Friday, Trump said he is “tired” of other people negotiating the war and stressed how he and Putin need to meet.
“He is at the table, and he wanted this meeting. And I always felt there can’t be a meeting without me, because I don’t think a deal is going to get through,” Trump said. “We have to get together, and I think we’ll probably schedule it, because I’m tired of having other people go and meet and everything else.”
Trump was reluctant to cast Putin as the obstacle to peace with Ukraine, but he also told Fox News he thinks “Putin is tired of this whole thing.”
“He’s not looking good, and he wants to look good,” Trump said. “Don’t forget, this was supposed to end in one week.”
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