US President Donald Trump is set to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday about peace in Ukraine, as European leaders urged the Kremlin to accept an immediate ceasefire to end the region's deadliest conflict since World War II.
On May 17, Trump said he would speak separately with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine on May 19.
In a post on his Truth Social network at the time, Trump said he would speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone and added that he would then speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and have a group call with Zelensky and "various NATO members."
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On May 15, Trump said he did not expect progress on Ukraine until he met with Putin, who was not part of the Russian delegation for talks with the Ukrainians in Turkey.
Putin sent thousands of troops to Ukraine in February 2022, sparking the most severe confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly called for an end to the "bloodshed" in Ukraine, which his administration portrays as a proxy war between the United States (US) and Russia.
Under pressure from Trump, delegates from the warring countries met last week in Istanbul for the first time since March 2022, after Putin proposed direct talks and the Europeans and Ukraine demanded an immediate ceasefire.
"The subjects of the call will be stopping the 'bloodbath' that is killing, on average, more than 5.000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers per week, and trade," Trump wrote on his Truth Social website.
"Let's hope it will be a productive day, that there will be a ceasefire and that this very violent war will end, a war that should never have happened," he said.
Trump, who has said progress on peace is unlikely until he and Putin meet, said he would speak with Putin on Monday at 16 a.m. Eastern Time (XNUMX p.m. Central European Time). The Kremlin said preparations for the call were underway.
The Kremlin also announced that Putin will speak with Trump today at 17 p.m. Moscow time (16 p.m. Central European Time), the state news agency RIA reported, as reported by Reuters.
RIA quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that the two leaders' talks on Ukraine would take into account the results of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul last week.
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Trump, whose administration has made it clear that Russia could face additional sanctions if it does not take peace talks seriously, said he would speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and various NATO members.
Putin, whose forces control a fifth of Ukraine and are advancing, is standing firm on his terms for ending the war, despite public and private pressure from Trump and repeated warnings from European powers.
Russia on Sunday carried out its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war.
Ukrainian intelligence said it also believed Moscow intended to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile on Sunday, although there was no confirmation from Russia.
In June 2024, Putin said that Ukraine must officially abandon its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entire territory of four Ukrainian regions that Russia claims as its own.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed Russia's war against Ukraine with the leaders of the United States, Italy, France and Germany on Sunday, a Downing Street spokesman said.
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"President Putin must show tomorrow that he wants peace by accepting the 30-day unconditional ceasefire proposed by President Trump and supported by Ukraine and Europe," French President Emmanuel Macron said on the X social network after Sunday's call.
Putin is cautious about a ceasefire, saying the fighting cannot be paused until a number of key conditions are worked out or clarified.
European leaders say Putin is not serious about peace, although they fear Trump could force a punitive peace deal that would essentially leave Ukraine without a fifth of its territory and without strong security guarantees against a possible future Russian attack, according to Reuters.
Former US President Joseph Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine have described the invasion as an imperial-style land grab and have repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces that they say could one day attack NATO, a claim Moscow has denied.
Putin sees the war as a turning point in Moscow's relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 by expanding NATO and encroaching on what he sees as Moscow's sphere of influence, including Ukraine.
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