Former U.S. President Donald Trump announced he will hold a high-stakes phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday morning, as part of efforts to broker a ceasefire in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
Writing on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump said the call with Putin is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. He confirmed the conversation would focus on “stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade.” He added that a separate conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as NATO representatives, will follow later in the day.
“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,” Trump wrote. “God bless us all.”
The announcement comes as fighting escalates on the ground. Ukrainian officials reported Russia’s most intense drone assault since the war began in 2022, just hours before Trump’s statement.
Zelensky, who is currently in Rome, attended Pope Leo’s inauguration Mass at the Vatican on Sunday, where the pontiff made a plea for a “just and lasting peace.” The Ukrainian president also met with the Pope and several global leaders, including U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“We discussed real diplomacy, ceasefire conditions, sanctions, and our efforts to achieve a just and durable peace,” Zelensky said following his meeting with U.S. officials.
Meanwhile, European leaders have expressed keen interest in Trump’s upcoming calls. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said officials from Germany, France, Poland, and the UK hope to speak with Trump ahead of his conversation with Putin.
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told ABC’s This Week that the call could be key to breaking the diplomatic deadlock. “If he can’t do it, then nobody can,” Witkoff said of Trump.
The scheduled calls follow a meeting between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul on Friday, which resulted in an agreement for the largest prisoner exchange of the war. While Putin declined to attend the talks in person, both sides reportedly discussed terms for a potential ceasefire and the possibility of a future presidential meeting.
The Kremlin has confirmed the importance of the Trump-Putin dialogue, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stating, “Contacts between President Putin and Trump are extremely important in the context of the Ukrainian settlement.”
Whether Monday’s calls result in tangible progress remains to be seen, but the diplomatic flurry marks a renewed push to end the nearly three-year war.
