US President Donald Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that he will speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday about the war in Ukraine.
In his post, Trump said the subject of the call will be "stopping the 'bloodbath", after which he plans to speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and "various members of NATO."
He added that he hopes the outcome of these calls will be a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. Ending Russia’s war was a key campaign promise during his presidential campaign.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed in comments to Russian media that preparations were underway for Monday’s call.
Peskov also held open the possibility of Putin holding talks with Zelenskyy, providing the agreed prisoner swap goes ahead, and if the Russian and Ukrainian delegations reached unspecified further “agreements.”
He told reporters that Moscow will present Ukraine with a list of conditions for a ceasefire, but gave no timeframe, or say what needed to happen before Zelenskyy and Putin can meet.
The US President has increasingly pressured both Moscow and Kyiv for an end to Russia's war. In the past, he has said he doesn’t expect a significant breakthrough in peace talks unless he and Putin speak directly.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about peace talks on Saturday, according to US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.
Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Turkey
Trump’s announcement comes less than a day after the first direct peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv in years failed to yield a ceasefire.
However, Russia showed little inclination to make concessions. During Friday’s peace talks, they asked Ukraine to withdraw from four regions Moscow had invaded – none of which Russia full controls.
While no agreement was reached concerning a ceasefire during these talks, the two sides agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each – the largest such swap since the war began.
Ukraine and its Western allies had urged Russia to accept a US-backed 30-day ceasefire. However, Putin rejected this and instead proposed the negotiations in Istanbul “without preconditions.”
The Russian leader also spurned an offer by Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face in the peace talks.
Following the peace talks, Russia launched a drone strike on a passenger bus in the Ukrainian region of Sumy which killed at least nine people and injured seven more. Most of the passengers in the bus were elderly women, according to regional authorities.
