U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday that Russia and Ukraine “will immediately start negotiations” toward a ceasefire and the end of their three-year war, after he spoke with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on the telephone.
“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 on-the-spot reaction from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the statement that negotiations would start immediately. Earlier, a person with knowledge of the issue said Zelenskiy’s conversation “lasting a few minutes” was with Trump prior to the U.S. leader’s telephone call with Putin.
Kyiv Shows Readiness, Moscow Sets Conditions
Kyiv announced it is prepared for a truce now whereas Moscow has announced conditions need to be fulfilled first.
In his social media message, Trump stated that the Vatican, “as represented by the Pope, has informed us that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations. Let the process begin!”
Putin and Trump talked following face-to-face negotiations last week in Turkey between Kyiv and Moscow, the first since 2022 in the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Negotiations last week did not reach a deal on a truce.
Donald Trump, Washington’s Position and Caution
U.S. Vice President JD Vance previously reiterated a threat that Washington might leave the peace process.
Putin announced the memorandum would establish “a number of posts, like, for instance, the terms of a settlement, the timing of a potential peace accord.”
He added that proper agreements could lead to a ceasefire, and that direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine give “good cause to believe that we’re generally on the right track.”
“The primary goal for us is to cut out the root causes of this crisis,” Putin added. “We simply have to identify the most efficient mechanisms to move towards peace.”
He thanked Trump for backing the resumption of direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv and said that Trump mentioned Russia’s commitment to peace, although the main issue was how to advance towards peace.
European Leaders and Ongoing Challenges
Trump, who has vowed to bring a rapid end to Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two, has frequently urged a ceasefire after three years when Washington joined other Western nations in supplying Ukraine with arms.
European leaders have told the United States that they want it to join them in imposing strict new sanctions on Russia for denying a ceasefire. Leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy addressed Trump on Sunday before his conversation with Putin.
Putin was addressing from Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi while Trump was in Washington.
Minutes earlier, Vance informed reporters that Washington was aware that “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 ahead of his departure from a trip to Italy.
“I think honestly that President Putin, he doesn’t quite know how to get out of the war,” Vance said.
He added that “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.'”
Donald Trump and U.S. Patience Wears Thin
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt informed the press corps that Trump wished to behold a ceasefire, but had become “weary and frustrated with both sides of the conflict”.
Is a package of secondary sanctions on Russia still on the table, reporters were asked. “I think everything’s on the table,” she replied.
Putin, whose military occupies a fifth of Ukraine and is still making gains, has resisted public and private pressure from Trump and repeated threats from European powers to soften his terms for halting the war.
