Moscow and Kyiv will “immediately” begin ceasefire talks with the aim of bringing an end to the war, US President Donald Trump claims as he divulged details of his phone calls with leaders of the two nations on Monday.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the call with Russian president Vladimir Putin went “very well” and the conditions of the ceasefire would be “negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of” and suggested that talks between the two nations could be hosted at the Vatican following an offer by Pope Leo XIV, the recently-elected American-born pontiff.
He added that the “tone” of his conversation with Putin had been “excellent” and suggested that the Russian leader had expressed a desire for “largescale TRADE” with the US after the war is ended.
“There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is UNLIMITED. Likewise, Ukraine can be a great beneficiary on Trade, in the process of rebuilding its Country. Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately,” he said.
Trump also stated that he communicated the substance of the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, German Chancellor Frederich Merz, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb “immediately after the call with President Putin” in a separate phone call.
A short time later in the White House Rose Garden, Trump addressed the conversation as he appeared with First Lady Melania Trump to sign legislation outlawing nonconsensual publication of intimate images and so-called “deep fake” pornography.
“We just spent two and a half hours talking to Vladimir Putin, and I think some progress has been made,” he said before adding that the war is a “terrible situation” with over 5,000 people being killed each week in the conflict.
“So hopefully we we did something. We also spoke to the heads of most of the European nations, and we’re trying to get that whole thing wrapped up. What a shame that it ever started in the first place,” he said.
Separately, Russian state media reported that Putin described the call as “informative and useful” and stated Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum about future peace talks.
The state-run news agency RIA Novosti quoted Putin as saying: “We are generally on the right track.”
Trump had previously said his discussion with Putin would focus on stopping the “bloodbath” of the war as well as potential trade issues with the latter topic being sign that the American president might be seeking to use financial incentives to broker some kind of agreement after Russia’s invasion led to severe sanctions by the US and its allies that have steadily eroded Moscow’s economy.
The American and Russian leaders have spoken by phone several times since Trump returned to the White House in January for his second term.
The first publicly announced telephone call them was on February 12, just weeks after Trump’s inauguration.
At the time, Trump said then that both Putin and Zelensky had expressed a desire for peace in separate phone calls, and Trump ordered top US officials to begin talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
Their next conversation took place just over a month later on March 18, with the Kremlin stating that they spoke for about 2 hours.
According to readouts of the calls issued by the respective governments, Putin agreed to stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities temporarily but declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire that Trump hoped would be the first step toward a permanent peace deal.
Since then, both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of breaking that moratorium on attacking energy facilities.
During talks last week in Istanbul, Russian representatives made a series of demands described as unacceptable by Kyiv, including insistences that Ukraine adopt a neutral position with no foreign troops or weapons of mass destruction on its territory, renounce claims for reparations from Russia for damages caused by them war and accept Russian annexation of Crimea plus four other parts of eastern Ukraine which Moscow has attempted to seize and annex despite not fully gaining control of them after years of war.
Trump and his aides have grown increasingly frustrated with Putin in recent months as the Russian president has refused to sign on to any of the multiple plans for a ceasefire pushed by the American administration, even as Zelensky has agreed to call off attacks from his forces if Moscow will concur.
Earlier in the day, Vice President JD Vance told reporters traveling with him to Washington from Rome that administration officials had concluded that there was an “impasse” that needed to be resolved to bring an end to the conflict.
In a brief availability with the press before boarding Air Force Two, he said: “I think the president’s going to say to President Putin: ‘Look, are you serious? Are you real about this?’”
Vance also said Putin “doesn’t quite know how to get out of the war” and stressed that Washington is willing to help bring about an end to the conflict while cautioning that the administration’s patience is not endless.
“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,” he said. “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 anymore.'”
Separately, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a morning press briefing that Trump’s goal remains a “ceasefire” that would “see this conflict come to and end” but warned that the American president had “grown weary and frustrated with both sides of the conflict.”
“The president and his team have put an enormous amount of effort into solving this very complicated war that, again, began because of the previous administration’s weakness,” she said.
The American president is understood to have spoken with Zelensky ahead of the call with Putin, though Leavitt had said that Trump would speak with the Ukrainian leader following his call with his Russian counterpart.
Zelensky confirmed that he participated in the call with Trump before the American president spoke with Putin, as well as the second call with the other European leaders, in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
He said Putin’s agreement to participate in talks was “a defining moment” because “the world can now see whether its leaders are truly capable of securing a ceasefire and achieving real, lasting peace.”
Zelensky also said he’d reiterated to Trump that Ukraine “is ready for a full and unconditional ceasefire” and warned that “there must be stronger sanctions” against Moscow if Russia is “not ready to stop the killings.”
He further stated that Ukraine “is ready for direct negotiations with Russia in any format that brings results” in “all possible venues” with Türkiye, the Vatican, and Switzerland under consideration.
“It is not necessary to convince Ukraine, and our representatives are prepared to make real decisions in negotiations. What’s needed is a mirrored readiness from Russia to engage in meaningful talks,” he said.
Zelensky added that the talks “must involve both American and European representatives at the appropriate time” because it is “crucial” that America “not distance itself from … the pursuit of peace” and noted that the only beneficiary from the U.S. distancing itself from the process, he said, would be Putin.
“Russia must end the war it started, and it can begin doing so any day. Ukraine has always been ready for peace,” he said.
