Trump said he will speak with Putin about halting the “bloodbath” in Ukraine.

According to Donald Trump, he will be calling Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday to discuss “stopping the ‘bloodbath'” in the war in Ukraine.

The US president stated in a post on Truth Social that the call would begin at 10:00 EDT (14:00 GMT) and that he would then speak with the leaders of other NATO nations as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Although a prisoner swap was agreed upon, Russia and Ukraine failed to make any progress during their first in-person negotiations in three years in Istanbul on Friday.
Trump had asked Putin to join him for the meetings in Turkey, but the Russian president refused to go.

Trump’s remarks follow his suggestion that direct negotiations between him and Putin were necessary to make forward towards ending the war.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Kremlin, told Russian news media that plans were on for Putin and Trump to speak by phone on Monday. The two leaders have previously discussed the subject over the phone.

Telling the Tass news agency, “The conversation is in the works,” Peskov said.

Trump had stated on Truth Social: “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.”

It is anticipated that the leaders of the US and Russia would talk about a truce and the potential summit.

In a call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Saturday, Moscow praised the US attempts at mediation, despite the fact that Moscow has been slower than Trump would like.

In February 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine also reaffirmed its demand for a complete and unconditional ceasefire after the negotiations in Istanbul.

A Ukrainian official claimed that in exchange for a truce, the Kremlin has made “new and unacceptable demands including insisting Kyiv withdraw its troops from large parts of its own territory.”

Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian team, expressed satisfaction with the discussions and indicated they were prepared to keep in touch.

Zelensky demanded harsher penalties against Moscow after a Russian drone struck a passenger bus in the Sumy area, killing nine people.

He claimed that there was “a deliberate killing of civilians” in the bus attack. Although state media said that soldiers had struck a “military staging area” in Sumy province, Russia has not responded.