(AFP) – Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine would “immediately” start peace talks after he spoke with Vladimir Putin on Monday, despite the Russian leader rebuffing the US president’s call for an unconditional truce. Trump framed the two-hour conversation as a breakthrough as the Republican seeks an elusive deal to end the conflict that he promised on the campaign trail to solve within 24 hours.
But Putin struck a more reserved tone, saying he was ready to work with Kyiv on a memorandum towards ending the war Moscow launched in February 2022 but insisting on compromises on both sides. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, who has patched up relations with the US president after a blazing row in the Oval Office, urged Trump in a separate call not to make any decisions “without us.”
Trump has pinned his hopes on ending the conflict on a personal bond with Putin, even as he shows growing frustration with the Kremlin leader’s refusal to do a deal. “I believe it went very well,” Trump said on his Truth Social network after Monday’s Putin call. “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War.” Trump later said he thought Putin was ready for a ceasefire. “I believe he wants to stop,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “If I thought President Putin didn’t want to get this over with, I wouldn’t even be talking about it.”
– ‘Very useful’ –
Trump recently called for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. Kyiv agreed, but Putin has so far held off on any such truce, sparking criticism from Western countries. Putin was more circumspect about the Trump call, even as he appeared to give one of the most concrete signs yet of being ready to discuss a ceasefire. “It was very informative and very open and overall, in my opinion, very useful,” Putin told Russian media after the call. He said that Russia would “propose and will be ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace agreement defining a range of positions.” His comments left many details unclear, and he added that more “compromises” were still needed.
Trump has largely refrained from criticizing Putin, amid a pivot to talks with Russia after his inauguration that alarmed Kyiv and Western allies. He has also insisted that only a face-to-face meeting with Putin will be able to end the conflict — although Putin rebuffed his suggestion to meet in Istanbul last week, where Russia and Ukraine held their first direct talks in more than three years. But he has shown increasing signs of impatience amid suspicions that Putin is stalling.
– ‘Without us’ –
Zelensky spoke to Trump both before and after the Putin call, urging the US president to toughen sanctions against Russia if it refused a ceasefire. “I asked him not to make any decisions about Ukraine without us before his conversation with Putin,” Zelensky told reporters. Zelensky also ruled out withdrawing troops from parts of eastern and southern Ukraine under Kyiv’s control, rejecting demands put forward by Russia for ending its invasion.
Trump spoke to a host of Western leaders after the Putin call, including European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen and the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, and Finland. Pope Leo XIV has meanwhile offered to host the Russia-Ukraine talks at the Vatican, according to both Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. European nations meanwhile backed Kyiv’s calls for Western sanctions against Russia to be toughened if it does not agree to a ceasefire quickly after the Trump-Putin call.
But there were signs from Trump that he is more interested in resetting relations with Moscow than imposing sanctions. He held out the carrot that Russia could do “largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over.” On the ground, the Russian army continued its attacks. Moscow claimed its forces had captured two villages in Ukraine’s eastern Sumy and Donetsk regions. Russia also fired 112 drones on Ukraine overnight, 76 of which were repelled, the Ukrainian air force said.
burs-dk/bfm – Danny KEMP
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