Trump to Call Putin and Zelenskyy Monday in Bid to End Ukraine War

It comes as cease-fire talks have stalled after the Istanbul summit yielded only a prisoner swap.

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It comes as cease-fire talks have stalled after the Istanbul summit yielded only a prisoner swap.

President Donald Trump said he plans to speak by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday morning, followed by calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO allies, in an effort to broker a cease-fire in the Ukraine war.

“I will be speaking, by telephone, to President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Monday, at 10:00 a.m.,” Trump wrote in a post on social media May 17. “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 added that he would then speak with Zelenskyy and various NATO allies to build support for ending what he called “a war that should have never happened.”

“Hopefully it will be a productive day, a ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war will end,” Trump wrote. “God bless us all!”

Trump’s remarks come on the heels of the first direct peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv since 2022, which were held in Istanbul on May 16 and failed to yield a cease-fire. The talks, which lasted nearly two hours, resulted only in an agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each—the largest such swap since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.

Putin had proposed holding negotiations “without preconditions,” but rejected Zelenskyy’s request for a face-to-face meeting. In response, Zelenskyy sent a lower-level delegation, led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, to meet with a Russian team headed by Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky.

Both sides confirmed the prisoner exchange deal, but offered few additional details. Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said the swap could take place as early as next week.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on any further conditions discussed at the talks, telling reporters in Moscow on Saturday that negotiations “are taking place behind closed doors, just as they should—to ensure they are productive.”

Peskov added that Russia plans to present Ukraine with a list of cease-fire conditions but did not specify a timeline. He also did not rule out a future meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, saying it would depend on the success of the prisoner exchange and progress in further talks.

In a separate development, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke by phone on May 17 to discuss the outcome of the Istanbul meeting and the broader contours of the cease-fire. Rubio said in a statement on social media that he conveyed Trump’s message—“the death and destruction must stop”—while urging the Russian side to end hostilities.

“The U.S. has presented a strong peace plan and we welcome the Prisoner of War exchange agreement reached in Istanbul,” Rubio wrote. “Let’s not miss this huge opportunity. The time for ending this war is now.”

Lavrov “noted the US’ positive role” in getting Ukraine to return to the negotiating table and confirmed Moscow’s willingness to continue diplomatic engagement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, per Russian state media Tass. “The conversation also touched on several other international and regional issues. The sides exchanged opinions on developing Russia-US relations,” it added.

Zelenskyy, for his part, expressed frustration with the stalled talks and reiterated Ukraine’s call for a full, unconditional cease-fire.

“Ukraine has long been offering this—a full and unconditional ceasefire in order to save lives. Russia retains nothing but the ability to continue killing,” Zelenskyy said in a post on social media on Saturday. He accused Russian forces of deliberately targeting civilians, citing a drone strike on a bus evacuating residents from the Sumy region that killed nine people. “All the deceased were civilians,” he said. “This was a deliberate killing of civilians.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces struck a military site in Sumy but did not mention any civilian casualties.

Zelenskyy also called for harsher sanctions on Moscow if it refuses to pursue serious peace efforts. “Without tougher sanctions, without stronger pressure, Russia will not seek real diplomacy,” he wrote on social media.

Trump, speaking to Fox News in an interview recorded during his recent trip to Abu Dhabi, said he believed a negotiated peace was within reach.

“I think we’ll make a deal,” he said. “We have to get together, and I think we’ll probably schedule it.”

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