President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he’ll speak separately to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday as he ramps up efforts to help the two nations reach a ceasefire.
“I will be speaking, by telephone, to President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Monday, at 10:00 a.m.,” Trump wrote in an all-caps post on Truth Social on Saturday, adding, “I will then be speaking to President Zelenskyy of Ukraine.”
Trump said he would speak to Putin about “stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade.”
“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,” he added.
Trump has urged Zelenskyy and Putin for months to reach a ceasefire deal to end the three-year-long war. Ending the war was a key campaign promise for Trump during the 2024 presidential election cycle.
Officials from Russia and Ukraine on Friday held their first direct talks in Istanbul since the early months of the war, but the two sides did not appear to be significantly closer to agreeing on terms for a permanent ceasefire.
The president has for weeks ramped up his rhetoric against Putin, blasting him for striking Ukraine as U.S. officials tried to initiate talks between both sides.
“Vladimir, STOP!” Trump wrote in one April post after Russia bombarded Ukraine in attacks that killed at least 12 people.
