Trump announced he had plans to hold back-to-back calls with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, in a bid to end the war.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone, as the American president continues his push to settle the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump said he believed his call with the Russian leader went well.
“The tone and spirit of the conversation was excellent,” he wrote in a Monday post on his Truth Social platform.
In his Monday post, Trump indicated he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders immediately after he wrapped up his call with Putin.
Trump said he informed Zelenskyy and the other European leaders that negotiations would begin immediately.
“Russia is ready and will continue to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a potential future peace treaty,” Putin said in a press statement carried by Russia’s state-run TASS news agency following his call with Trump.
In his own press statement on social media platform X on Monday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine has been and remains ready to negotiate for a cease-fire and an end to the fighting.
I spoke with @POTUS twice today. First, we had a one-on-one call before his conversation with the head of Russia, and later we spoke together with President Trump and European leaders President @EmmanuelMacron, Prime Minister @GiorgiaMeloni, Federal Chancellor @bundeskanzler,… pic.twitter.com/mm6a0Pro84
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 19, 2025
“It is not necessary to convince Ukraine, and our representatives are prepared to make real decisions in negotiations,” Zelenskyy wrote. “What’s needed is a mirrored readiness from Russia to engage in meaningful talks.”
In March, Ukraine signaled its support for a U.S.-backed 30-day cease-fire to build momentum toward a more permanent peace settlement. Putin initially expressed an interest in the pause, but stopped short of committing to the proposal.
In late April, Putin unilaterally declared a cease-fire from May 8 through May 10, to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Zelenskyy and other European leaders called on Putin to extend that brief cease-fire window, and threatened additional sanctions if he refused. The Russian leader did not agree to those demands.
European leaders, in turn, have discussed new sanctions targeting Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines and its “shadow fleet” of commercial ships suspected of helping to circumvent international trade restrictions and surreptitiously sabotage Western undersea infrastructure.
By Ryan Morgan
