President Donald Trump has said he will be speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, amid attempts to procure a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.
“I will be speaking, by telephone, to President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Monday, at 10:00 a.m.,” Trump announced on his Truth Social account on Saturday, May 17.
He said 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.”
Trump said after this call, he will then speak separately with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“Hopefully it will be a productive day, a cease-fire will take place, and this very violent war, a war that should have never happened, will end, God bless us all,” Trump concluded.
The announcement from Trump comes after officials from Russia and Ukraine met in Istanbul, Turkey, on Friday to hold direct talks about the pursuit of peace. Notably, neither Zelensky or Putin were present at the summit. After much speculation as to whether the two leaders would engage in a face-to-face meeting—something Zelensky advocated for, on the condition that a temporary cease-fire would be agreed to prior—the two did not meet. Putin rejected Zelensky’s offer to an in-person sit-down in Turkey, and did not accompany the Russian delegation to Turkey. Meanwhile, Zelensky travelled to the Turkish capital of Ankara, where he met with the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
In a sign of progress, the meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian delegates did result in an agreement to carry out the largest prisoner swap of the war, with each country committing to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war.
After the meeting, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who led the country’s delegation, told reporters that the two countries had also discussed the possibility of a cease-fire and a meeting between their respective Presidents.
Europe and the U.S. have previously proposed a 30-day cease-fire, which Ukraine has accepted. But Putin has refused to accept the proposal unless a list of his demands are met.
This story is being updated.
The post Trump Says He Will Speak to Putin on Monday About ‘Stopping the Bloodbath’ appeared first on TIME.
