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Donald Trump said that Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin negotiations on the preparations for peace talks, but said that he was leaving Moscow and kyiv to find an agreement without the United States as a broker.
After telephone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Asset Published that “Russia and Ukraine will immediately begin negotiations to a cease-fire and, more importantly, the end of the war”.
PoutineReading the call was more temporary and he did not offer any substance change in the position of the Kremlin, while Zelenskyy implored the American chief to “not distribute” efforts to ensure peace.
The “only taking advantage of it is Putin,” Zelenskyy said in a statement.
In the remarks indicating that Washington could retreat from a mediator role, Trump said that the “conditions” for an agreement could only be agreed by the War parties “because they know the details of a negotiation that no one would be aware”.
He also said that the Vatican would be “very interested” to organize talks. During a pink Garden event later during the day, we asked Trump if he thought Putin wanted peace and Pope Leo could help deliver him, he replied: “I do it.”
In his more kept story, Putin said he was “ready to work” with kyiv on a memorandum to supervise future talks, which could include a possible ceasefire “for a while”.
Putin told a state media journalist that the conversation with Trump had been “very candid and therefore very useful”. But he has not announced any major change in Moscow’s position on Russian on a large scale Invasion of Ukraine.
“We have agreed with the American president that Russia will offer and is ready to work with the Ukrainian on a memorandum on the possible future peace agreement,” said Putin.
He also said that the main objective of Russia was still “to eliminate the deep causes of this crisis”, in the language which pointed out that its central requests remain unchanged.
Officers of the Zelenskyy office said that they did not know what the memorandum would be, although the Ukrainian chief declared 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 ready to make real decisions in the negotiations,” Zelenskyy said in a statement late Monday. “What is necessary is a mirror preparation of Russia to engage in significant talks.”
Zelenskyy called for “stronger sanctions” on Moscow Western partners in Ukraine.
Last week, Russia negotiators demanded that kyiv withdraw bands from its territory and threatened to occupy more territory in Ukraine.
Trump also said that immediately after his call with Putin, he told the conversation to Zelenskyy with the leaders of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Finland and the European Commission.
The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that all participants in the call “reaffirm their desire to closely support Ukraine on the way to a ceasefire”.
But two people informed the call with European leaders, said Trump was clear that he would withdraw the United States from engaging with the conflict and leaving Ukraine and Russia to directly negotiate a cease-fire. He also made no promise of future American sanctions against Russia if Putin refuses any attempt at peace.
A person familiar with the conversation said that leaders had been amazed by the American president’s description of what was agreed. They added that it was clear that Trump was “not ready to exert greater pressure” on Putin to come seriously to the negotiating table.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy advisor, told journalists that the appeal had been led in a tone of “mutual respect” and that Trump had expressed his support for normalization of relations between Washington and Moscow.
“President Trump, I am able to say,” said the prospects of these relationships with passion, “said Ushakov. “In particular, he stressed that the prospects for bilateral relations – after the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict – that these perspectives seem very impressive.”
The telephone calls on Monday came only a few days after Putin refused to attend peace talks with Ukraine in Turkey that he himself initiated, which prompted Trump to say that “nothing will happen” until he and the Russian president met in person.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have accelerated in recent weeks, Russia and Ukraine organizing direct talks in Istanbul on Friday, their first since the start of the three -year war.
Trump promised to end the war on the first day of his second term, but peace has proven to be elusive, the two still distant parties.
In European capitals, the leaders fear that Trump will conclude an agreement with Putin who reaches his maximalist requirements and sells the interests of Ukraine in his haste to end the fighting.
Additional reports by Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Berlin
