By Guy Faulconbridge, Steve Holland and Max Hunder
Donald Trump has spoken to Vladimir Putin about Ukraine. Photo: Mandel Ngan and Maxim Shemetov / various sources / AFP
US President Donald Trump says his call with Russia's President Vladimir Putin went very well and that Moscow and Kyiv would immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire and end to the war.
Under pressure from Trump, delegates from the warring countries met last week in Istanbul for the first time since 2022, though they failed to agree to a truce. Kyiv says it is ready for a ceasefire now; Moscow says conditions must be met first.
"Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately," Trump said in a Truth Social post following his call with Putin, which lasted two hours.
After the call, 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 United States that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord," Putin told reporters near the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the statement that talks would begin immediately. A source familiar with the matter earlier said Zelensky spoke "for a few minutes" with Trump before the US leader's call with Putin.
Kyiv has said it is ready for a ceasefire now while Moscow has said conditions must be met first.
Putin and Trump did not discuss a timeline for a ceasefire in Ukraine during their two-hour phone call, but Trump stressed his interest in reaching agreements quickly, the Kremlin said.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov also told reporters the two leaders talked about trading nine Russians for nine Americans in a prisoner swap as part of a discussion about improving bilateral relations.
In his social media post, 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!"
Trump said that the "tone and spirit of the conversation (with Putin) were excellent," and that Russia wants to do "largescale" trade with the US once the war is over.
He said that Ukraine would also benefit from trade "in the process of rebuilding its country."
Putin and Trump spoke after direct talks last week in Turkey between Moscow and Kyiv, the first since 2022 in the early months of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Talks last week failed to agree on a truce.
US Vice President JD Vance earlier repeated a warning that Washington could walk away from the peace process.
Putin said the memorandum would define "a number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement".
He said that if appropriate agreements were reached, there could be a ceasefire, adding that direct talks between Russia and Ukraine gave "reason to believe that we are generally on the right track".
"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."
He thanked Trump for supporting the resumption of direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv and said Trump noted Russia's support for peace, though the key question was how to move towards peace.
Trump, who has promised to bring a swift end to Europe's deadliest war since World War II, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire after years in which Washington joined other Western countries in arming Ukraine.
European leaders have said they want the United States to join them in imposing tough new sanctions on Russia for refusing a ceasefire. The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy spoke to Trump on Sunday ahead of his call with Putin.
Putin was speaking from Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi while Trump was in Washington.
Shortly before the call, Vance told reporters that Washington recognised there was "a bit of an impasse here".
"And I think the president's going to say to President Putin: 'Look, are you serious? Are you real about this?'" Vance said as he prepared to depart from Italy.
"I think honestly that President Putin, he doesn't quite know how to get out of the war," Vance said.
He said it "takes two to tango. I know the president's willing to do that, but if Russia is not willing to do that, then we're eventually just going to say, this is not our war".
"We're going to try to end it, but if we can't end it, we're eventually going to say: 'You know what? That was worth a try, but we're not doing any more.'"
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump wanted to see a ceasefire, but that he had grown "weary and frustrated with both sides of the conflict".
Asked if a package of secondary sanctions against Russia remains on the table, she said: "I think everything's on the table."
Peace or war
Trump, whose administration has made clear that Russia could face additional sanctions if it does not take peace talks seriously, said he would also speak to Zelensky and various members of NATO.
The Ukrainian president's office did not immediately comment when asked about the call between Zelensky and Trump and there was no immediate word about it from the White House.
Putin, whose forces control a fifth of Ukraine and are advancing, has stood firm on his conditions for ending the war, despite public and private pressure from Trump and repeated warnings from European powers.
On Sunday (local time), Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war.
Ukraine's intelligence service said it also believed Moscow intended to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile on Sunday, though there was no confirmation from Russia that it had done so.
In June 2024, Putin said Ukraine must officially drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entire territory of four Ukrainian regions Russia claims.
After the European leaders' phone call with Trump on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said on X: "Tomorrow President Putin must show he wants peace by accepting the 30-day unconditional ceasefire proposed by President Trump and backed by Ukraine and Europe."
Putin is wary of a ceasefire and says fighting cannot be paused until conditions are met, including a halt to Western arms for Kyiv.
European leaders say Putin is not serious about peace. They worry that Trump may abandon support for Kyiv, forcing it to accept a punitive peace deal that would leave Ukraine shorn of a fifth of its territory and lacking a strong security guarantee against possible future attack.
Before Trump returned to office this year, Washington joined Western European leaders and Ukraine in describing Russia's invasion as an imperial-style land grab.
Trump's administration has shifted US policy towards accepting some of Russia's account of the conflict, which Moscow says it launched because of a security threat from Ukraine's drift towards the West.
- Reuters
