WASHINGTON, May 19: President Donald Trump is hoping separate phone calls with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will make progress toward a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine. Trump expressed his hopes for a “productive day” on Monday and a ceasefire in a social media post over the weekend. His effort will also include calls to NATO leaders.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin and Trump will speak at 5 p.m. Moscow time (1400 GMT), about 10 a.m. Eastern, calling the conversation “important” given the talks that took place in Istanbul last week between Russian and Ukrainian officials.
Trump has struggled to end a war that began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022, making these conversations a serious test of his reputation as a deal maker. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday ahead of the call that Trump has grown weary and frustrated with both sides of the conflict. Trump is banking on the idea that his force of personality and personal history with Putin will be enough to break any impasse over a pause in the fighting.
Trump’s discussion with Putin will focus on stopping the “bloodbath” of the war and will cover trade, a sign that Trump might be seeking to use financial incentives to broker some kind of agreement after Russia’s invasion led to severe sanctions by the United States and its allies that have steadily eroded Moscow’s ability to grow. Trump’s hope, according to the post, is that “a war that should have never happened will end.”
Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump had made it clear that a failure by Putin to negotiate “in good faith” could lead to additional sanctions against Russia. Bessent suggested that the sanctions that began during the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden were inadequate because they did not stop Russia’s oil revenues, due to concerns that doing so would increase US prices. The United States sought to cap Russia’s oil revenues while preserving the country’s petroleum exports to limit the damage from the inflation that the war produced.
Putin recently rejected an offer by Zelenskyy to meet in-person in Turkey as an alternative to a 30-day ceasefire urged by Ukraine and its Western allies, including Washington. Those talks ended Friday after less than two hours, without a ceasefire in place. Both countries committed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of w ar each, with Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, saying on Ukrainian television Saturday that the exchanges could happen as early as this week. (AP)
