Trump leaves Russia and Ukraine to settle war in talks

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Donald Trump has claimed that Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin negotiations on preparations for peace talks, but signalled that he was leaving Moscow and Kyiv to find a deal without the US as a broker.

After phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump posted that “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War”.

Putin’s readout of the call was more tentative and he offered no substantive change in the Kremlin’s stance, while Zelenskyy implored the US leader to “not distance” himself from efforts to secure peace.

The “only one who benefits from that is Putin”, Zelenskyy said in a statement.

In remarks that indicated that Washington may be stepping back from a role as a mediator, Trump said the “conditions” for a deal could only be agreed by the warring parties “because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of”.

He also said the Vatican would be “very interested” in hosting the talks, adding: “Let the process begin!”

In his more guarded account, Putin said he was “ready to work” with Kyiv on a memorandum to frame future talks, which could include a possible ceasefire “for a certain amount of time”.

Putin told a state media reporter that the conversation with Trump had been “very candid and therefore very useful”. But he did not announce any major shifts in Moscow’s position on Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

“We agreed with the US president that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum about the possible future peace agreement,” Putin said.

He also said that Russia’s main objective was still “to eliminate the root causes of this crisis”, in language that signalled his central demands remain unchanged.

Officials in Zelenskyy’s office said they were unsure what the memorandum would be, although the Ukrainian leader said in a statement that he had reiterated to Trump that Ukraine was “ready for direct negotiations with Russia in any format that brings results”.

“It is not necessary to convince Ukraine, and our representatives are prepared to make real decisions in negotiations,” Zelenskyy said in a statement late on Monday. “What’s needed is a mirrored readiness from Russia to engage in meaningful talks.”

Zelenskyy called for “stronger sanctions” on Moscow from Ukraine’s western partners.

Last week, Russia’s negotiators demanded that Kyiv withdraw from swaths of its territory, and threatened to occupy more territory in Ukraine.

Trump also said that immediately after his call with Putin, he recounted the conversation to Zelenskyy together with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland and the European Commission.

Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz said all participants in the call “reaffirmed their willingness to closely support Ukraine on its path toward a ceasefire”.

But two people briefed on the call with the European leaders said Trump was clear that he would pull the US back from engaging with the conflict and leave Ukraine and Russia to directly negotiate a ceasefire. He also made no promise of future US sanctions against Russia should Putin refuse any peace attempts.

One person familiar with the conversation said the leaders were stunned by the US president’s description of what was agreed. They added it was clear Trump was “not ready to put greater pressure” on Putin to come to the negotiating table in earnest.

Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, told reporters that the call was conducted in a tone of “mutual respect” and that Trump had expressed support for a normalisation of relations between Washington and Moscow.

“President Trump, I am able to say, spoke quite passionately about the prospects for those relations,” Ushakov said. “In particular he pointed out that prospects for bilateral relations — after the Ukraine conflict is resolved to some degree — that those prospects look very impressive.”

The phone calls on Monday came just days after Putin refused to attend peace talks with Ukraine in Turkey that he himself initiated, prompting Trump to say that “nothing is going to happen” until he and the Russian president met in person.

Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have accelerated in recent weeks, with Russia and Ukraine holding direct talks in Istanbul on Friday, their first since the start of the three-year war.

Trump vowed to end the war on day one of his second term but peace has proven elusive, with both sides still far apart.

In European capitals, leaders fear that Trump could cut a deal with Putin that accedes to his maximalist demands and sells out Ukraine’s interests in his haste to end the fighting.

Additional reporting by Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Berlin