US President Donald Trump said he would speak to the presidents of Russia and Ukraine on Monday following talks between the two sides, at which a Ukrainian official said Moscow’s negotiators voiced new demands before a ceasefire could be agreed.
Trump, writing on Truth Social, said he would speak with Putin to discuss stopping the war at 10 am Eastern (1400 GMT) on Monday.
‘THE SUBJECTS OF THE CALL WILL BE, STOPPING THE “BLOODBATH” THAT IS KILLING, ON AVERAGE, MORE THAN 5000 RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS A WEEK, AND TRADE,’ he wrote.
He said he would speak afterward with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and various members of NATO.
‘Hopefully it will be a productive day, a ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war, a war that should have never happened, will end.’
The president has been pressuring Putin and Zelenskyy to agree to a ceasefire in the more than three-year-old war.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that preparations were underway for a conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and said he welcomed the ‘positive role’ of the United States in helping to secure a resumption of talks between Russia and Ukraine. A Russian foreign ministry statement quoted Lavrov as saying contacts would continue.
Rubio was quoted as telling the CBS news programme Face the Nation that Lavrov said the Russians were ‘working on a series of ideas and requirements that they would have to move forward with a ceasefire and further negotiations.’
‘I think your question is, “Are they tapping us along?”’ he said in the interview to be broadcast on Sunday. ‘Well, that’s what we’re trying to find out.’