President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine “will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War” in a post on Truth Social after holding an official call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
Trump said he also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the leaders of France, Italy, Germany and Finland. Trump spoke with Zelenskyy before speaking with Putin, The Wall Street Journal’s Alex Ward reported.
The Vatican is willing to host the negotiations, Trump said.
Pope Leo XIV referenced efforts to end the war during his inaugural mass and met with Zelenskyy on Sunday after the mass.
Russia and Ukraine last week both called for meetings on possible negotiations for a ceasefire. Putin said early last week that Russia has “never refused to engage in dialogue with the Ukrainian side.” Zelenskyy responded by saying he would personally attend a scheduled meeting in Istanbul last Thursday to discuss a ceasefire and said Putin should do the same, possibly fast-tracking any agreement the two countries might reach. Putin did not attend, instead sending Vladimir Medinsky, the Kremlin’s foreign affairs aide.
Ukraine sent its defense minister, Rustem Umerov, who told reporters after the meeting Thursday that the two countries had agreed to a significant personnel exchange of 1,000 people and were moving slightly closer to a higher-level meeting between the two countries.
“All of you know that we had a real chance to take important steps toward ending this war,” Zelenskyy said Friday, the day after the meeting in Istanbul, at an address to world leaders in Albania. “If only Putin had not been afraid to come to Turkey.”
On Friday, reporters asked Trump what he thought of the Russian president’s absence from Istanbul. Trump told reporters he thought Putin wouldn’t come to the negotiating table without him present.
“They all said Putin was going and Zelenskyy was going. And I said, if I don’t go, I guarantee Putin is not going,” Trump said. “And he didn’t go. And I understand that, but we’re going to get it done. We’ve got to get it done.”
Trump said Russia is interested in “large-scale” trade with the U.S. after the war is over.
—
John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.