President Donald Trump is set to speak Monday with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in what the U.S. president said is an attempt to stop the “bloodbath” of the war in Ukraine.
Trump said the call would be taking place at 10 a.m. — although he did not specify whether this was on eastern daylight time or in another time zone. The American president said he would also be speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as members of NATO.
Ahead of the much anticipated Trump-Putin call, leaders from Britain, France, Germany and Italy said they spoke Sunday with Trump. The British government said in a statement that it was urging “Putin to take peace talks seriously.”
Those leaders “also discussed the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and peace talks,” the statement said — something the American president has previously threatened.
“Tomorrow, President Putin must show he wants peace by accepting the 30-day unconditional ceasefire proposed by President Trump and backed by Ukraine and Europe,” French President Emanuel Macron said in a statement.
While the diplomatic activity carries on, the violence in Ukraine continues. Russia has continued its near nightly drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian civilians, more than three years after it launched a full-scale invasion and tried to seize Kyiv.
On Sunday, Russia shelled residential neighborhoods of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kherson, killing one 75-year-old woman and injuring two others, the city council posted on the Telegram messaging site.
Trump said in a Truth Social post Saturday that he would be speaking with Putin at 10 a.m. Monday with the purpose of “stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week.” NBC News has not independently verified the numbers that Trump cited.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Russian state media Saturday that the call would be taking place.
Apparently referring both to his planned call with Putin and his slated talks with Zelenskyy and other European leaders, Trump added that “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.”
Despite promising on multiple occasions to end the war in 24 hours, Trump has since found the reality much different since beginning his second term in office.
U.S.-brokered negotiations saw Russia and Ukrainian delegations meet in person in Istanbul, Turkey, last week for the first time since the early days of the war.
However the demands of the two sides remain far apart: with Russia saying it will only sign a truce if Ukraine effectively surrenders. Ukraine says these demands are unacceptable.
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