Trump says he will speak with Russia's Putin on Monday in push to end 'bloodbath' in Ukraine

US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he will hold back-to-back phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday in a bid to broker a ceasefire in the ongoing war between the two nations.

“I will be speaking, by telephone, to President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Monday, at 10:00 a.m.,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “The subjects of the call will be, stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade.”

The president added that the conversation with Putin will be followed by a separate call with Zelenskyy, after which he plans to confer with “various members of NATO” alongside the Ukrainian leader.



“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,” Trump wrote. “God bless us all!”

The scheduled talks mark a potentially significant diplomatic intervention by the U.S. president, who has repeatedly criticised the war and called for a negotiated settlement. His post did not provide additional details about the nature of the trade discussions or what specific proposals he intends to raise in the calls with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.

The Kremlin and the Ukrainian government have not yet publicly confirmed the planned conversations.

Face-to-face talks yield little progress

Trump’s diplomatic push comes just a day after the first direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in over three years ended without any visible signs of progress. Delegations from both sides met on Friday at a palace in Turkey, marking their first face-to-face meeting since March 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But the session lasted less than two hours and left little hope for a breakthrough. A Ukrainian source told Reuters that Russia’s demands were “non-starters,” adding that they were “detached from reality and go far beyond anything that was previously discussed.” Moscow reportedly demanded Ukraine withdraw from parts of its own territory in exchange for a ceasefire, along with other conditions the Ukrainian delegation deemed “non-constructive.”

There was no immediate response from the Russian side following the meeting. However, the disparity in expectations had already been evident before the talks began.

On Thursday, President Trump, wrapping up a Middle East tour, had signaled that “there would be no movement without a meeting” between himself and President Putin. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, for his part, reiterated that Kyiv’s top priority was “a full, unconditional and honest ceasefire... to stop the killing and create a solid basis for diplomacy.” Should Moscow refuse, he called for stronger sanctions targeting Russia’s energy sector and banking system.

Russia stands firm on territorial demands

While Russia has expressed its readiness to negotiate a ceasefire, it has simultaneously raised concerns that Ukraine could use any pause to regroup and acquire more Western weapons. Ukrainian officials and their allies accuse Moscow of stalling and question the sincerity of its diplomatic overtures.

“The sides will decide on their own, with their own will, which path they choose,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the delegations at the outset of Friday’s talks. Ukrainian representatives reportedly spoke in their own language, despite Russian being widely understood across Ukraine. The Russian side was represented by mid-level officials, after Putin declined a direct challenge from Zelenskyy to attend in person.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also tempered expectations, saying that given the level of the negotiating teams, a major breakthrough was unlikely. “I hope I’m 100% wrong... but I’m just giving you my assessment, honestly,” he said.

As the meeting was underway, Russian forces claimed the capture of another village in eastern Ukraine, and Ukrainian media reported explosions in Dnipro following an air alert. Meanwhile, Russia insisted the current talks are a continuation of the Istanbul negotiations from early 2022—terms that Kyiv has since rejected as grossly disadvantageous.

President Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, dismissed attempts by Moscow to link the current discussions to the earlier ones, warning that such framing “will fail.”

Putin has maintained his longstanding demands, including that Ukraine cede territory, drop its NATO membership ambitions, and commit to neutrality. Ukraine has rejected those terms as capitulation, and continues to seek long-term security guarantees from its allies, particularly the United States.

(With inputs from Reuters)