Trump sees clear path to Peace talks after Putin call

Following his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump believes the way is clear for “immediate” talks between Russia and Ukraine. Both sides could “immediately begin negotiations on a ceasefire”, Trump wrote on his online service Truth Social on Monday. Russia's head of state Putin was more reserved after the phone call, but said that his government would present a memorandum and was ready to negotiate with Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned against the USA withdrawing from the peace efforts in the Ukraine war.

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Trump called his conversation with Putin “excellent” in tone and atmosphere: “I think it went very well.” Russia and Ukraine could now “immediately begin negotiations on a ceasefire - and more importantly - an end to the war”. He informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other EU heads of state and government of this directly after his phone call with Putin. According to Trump, the Vatican is ready to host talks between the warring parties.

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Trump believes Putin is ready for a ceasefire, he told journalists at the White House on Monday afternoon. “I think he wants to stop,” he said. “If I thought President Putin didn't want to end it, I wouldn't even be talking about it.” Putin had described the two-hour phone call with Trump as “useful” and “very honest”. Ukraine and Russia must now show “maximum desire for peace” and “find compromises that satisfy all sides”, the Russian head of state told journalists in Moscow on Monday. Putin assessed a meeting between delegations from both sides in Istanbul at the end of last week as positive: it “appears that we are generally on the right track”.

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Putin went on to say that his government was prepared to work together with the Ukrainian government on a “memorandum” to prepare a “possible future peace agreement” between the two states. This document could include “the principles of a settlement, the timeframe of a possible peace agreement and so on, including a possible ceasefire”, “provided that appropriate agreements are reached”. Putin did not give any details. The Kremlin leader also did not comment on the unconditional 30-day ceasefire in the Ukraine war that Trump had previously demanded.

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Ukrainian President Zelensky declared his willingness to examine Putin's proposal to draw up a memorandum. However, he had not yet received any details, he said in the evening in Kiev. However, Zelensky ruled out the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from parts of Ukraine previously held by Kiev: “Nobody will withdraw our troops from our territories.” Russia is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, which Russia had declared annexed but still does not fully control.

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Before Trump's phone call with Putin, he had asked the US president “not to make any decisions about Ukraine without us”, Zelensky explained. It was about “questions of principle” that were of great importance for Ukraine. During a telephone conversation with Trump following his phone call with Putin, several European allies of Ukraine announced that they would “increase the pressure on the Russian side through sanctions”, according to the German government.

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Trump, Chancellor Merz and the heads of state and government of France, Italy, Finland and Ukraine had agreed by telephone on the next steps in the efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine, explained government spokesman Stefan Kornelius. Trump, on the other hand, signaled that he is more interested in normalizing US relations with Russia and economic contacts than in sanctions: Russia could “trade with the United States on a large scale when this catastrophic ‘bloodbath’ is over,” he wrote on Truth Social.

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Zelensky later appealed once again to Washington not to let up in its peace efforts to end the war in Ukraine. "It is crucial for all of us that the United States does not distance itself from the talks and the pursuit of peace," Zelenskyj explained in online networks on Monday evening. The only one who benefits from this is Putin.