President Donald Trump conveyed confidence that Russia and Ukraine would reengage in negotiations for a ceasefire and an end to the war between the two countries after a two-hour-long phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War,” Trump wrote on social media on Monday. “The conditions for that will 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.”
Trump described “the tone and spirit of the conversation” as “excellent,” adding Russia wants to do “large-scale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over.”
“There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth,” he wrote. “Likewise, Ukraine can be a great beneficiary on Trade, in the process of rebuilding its Country.”
Putin provided the first readout of the phone call as Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
“It was very informative and very frank, and overall, in my opinion, very useful in this regard,” Putin told Russian news outlets before downplaying the prospect of a ceasefire without other agreements being made first.
Trump also reportedly spoke with Zelensky before his phone call with Putin, seeking advice from his Ukrainian counterpart regarding strategy. Zelensky’s asks included a 30-day ceasefire, a meeting with Putin attended by Trump, and a U.S.-Ukraine alignment agreement.
Trump assumed more responsibility for a peace deal last week, months after promising to end the war on his first day in office during last year’s campaign.
“Nothing’s gonna happen until Putin and I get together,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route to the United Arab Emirates last week. “He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything’s gonna happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. But we’re going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.”
Putin proposed a meeting with Zelensky last week as part of a counterproposal to the United Kingdom and European Union‘s demand for a 30-day ceasefire or risk more sanctions.
Instead, Putin deployed low-level representatives to Turkey last Thursday and spent the weekend sending possibly a record number of drones into Ukraine.
During a briefing earlier Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sidestepped a question regarding whether Trump perceived Putin as “the good guy or the bad guy.”
“The president has made it clear his goal is to see a ceasefire and see this conflict come to an end,” she said.
TRUMP AND PUTIN TO DISCUSS ENDING RUSSIA-UKRAINE ‘BLOODBATH’ OVER THE PHONE ON MONDAY
Leavitt declined to answer questions regarding Trump’s plans for the phone call, including whether he would try to extend the two-week deadline he had for Russia and Ukraine to reach a peace deal and whether he is considering secondary sanctions. She also tempered expectations of the pair meeting in person soon.
“I think the president would certainly be open to that, but let’s see how this call goes,” she said. “I think everything’s on the table. Yes. And again, I won’t get ahead of the president and any commitments or decisions, but certainly it’s something he’s been looking at and discussing.”
Monday’s developments come as the Trump administration has grown frustrated with Russia’s aversion to advancing ceasefire talks.
“We want to see outcomes,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters earlier on Monday. “The proposal from the United States has always been, ‘Look, there are a lot of economic benefits to thawing relations between Russia and the rest of the world, but you’re not going to get those benefits, if you can keep on killing a lot of innocent people. If you’re willing to stop the killing, the United States is willing to be a partner for peace’. That’s been the proposal to the Russians, to the Ukrainians, and, frankly to nations in other hotspots around the world.”
And Trump does maintain significant economic leverage to pressure Russia throughout the next stage of negotiations, according to a new memo from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
That list includes advanced targeting of the “shadow fleet” transporting Russia oil across the globe, expanding sanctions on Russian state-owned enterprises, and conditioning all sanctions relief on a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“If I were the president, I would want to bring all tools to bear that we can,” FDD senior research analyst Max Meizlish told the Washington Examiner Monday afternoon. “For all the criticism folks give the president, he doesn’t get enough credit for being creative with respect to the application of America’s economic statecraft.”
TRUMP AND PUTIN TO DISCUSS ENDING RUSSIA-UKRAINE ‘BLOODBATH’ OVER THE PHONE ON MONDAY
“The reality is, too much of our sanctions planning is done in a piecemeal approach, rather than looking at all the options all at once in a pre-planned and, frankly, more effective fashion,” he continued.