Ukraine and Russia will begin “immediately” negotiations for a high fire and to finish the war, as assured Monday and shortly before with the Ukrainian leader, Volodimir Zelenski. The meetings to talk about peace could take place in the Vatican, who has expressed interest in hosting, as Trump has pointed out in a message on his social network, Truth.
Despite the announcement, there are still numerous details that suggest that these alleged conversations will not necessarily be so immediate or have to give as significant results as the US president announces. Trump and Putin have expressed themselves more than positive about their dialogue, which have described as “frank and very useful”, and “excellent tone and spirit.” But the Russian president insisted after the talk that “it is necessary to eliminate the deep causes of this war.” For Russia, that phrase means ending the legitimate government of Ukraine and replacing it with a puppet.
“Russia and Ukraine are on the right path after the resumption of their direct conversations,” said the Russian leader, who reiterates his peace promises to Trump while his bombs fall on the Ukrainian cities day after day and is reluctant to accept a stop the fire by the fear that he cannot chap kyiv in the future.
Perhaps in recognition of the huge obstacles still pending, Trump said that the invaded country and the invader will have to be the ones who decide the conditions to dialogue, “because they know things about their negotiations that no one else knows.”
After both telephone calls, Trump has also been in contact with videoconference, as he has revealed, with the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; the presidents of France, Emmanuel Macron, and Finland, Alexander Stubb; The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz.
According to the US president, Putin is very interested in the possibilities of trade agreements that, supposedly, would open after peace and be of a potential “without limits” to create “huge amounts of jobs and wealth.” Ukraine also “can be a great beneficiary of trade, in the process to rebuild his country,” he added.
On the White House side, the conversation had an essential objective: to determine if the Kremlin head has real intentions of achieving peace. The American had warned in previous weeks that would impose new sanctions to Moscow if there were no progress on the Russian side to stop fighting, although he had not agreed that threat pending the failed Conversations of Istanbul last week. His vice president, JD Vance, pointed out before the conversation that Trump is “more than willing” to abandon his mediating role if there is no progress.
Putin has been the first to offer his conclusions of this telephone contact. “Russia advocates a peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis, it is necessary to identify the most effective roads towards peace,” said the Russian leader one day after launching 273 drones on Ukraine.
Frustration in Washington
The White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed the frustration of the US president in the face of the process stagnation. “It has been tired and frustrating with both parts of the conflict,” said the spokeswoman before the call. “It has made clear both parties that wants to see a peaceful solution and a high fire as soon as possible.”
Until now, Trump has been remarkably more favorable towards Moscow’s positions than towards kyiv’s, something that made the American could arrive with the Russian to an agreement that stops the war in unacceptable conditions for the country attacked by Russia.
Von der Leyen has thanked Trump for his “tireless efforts to achieve a high fire in Ukraine.” “It is important that the US is involved,” he stressed in X. The European Foreign Ministers prepare to give the final approval, this Tuesday, to the seventeenth package of the EU of sanctions to Russia, in which the blacklist the black list of ships belonging to the Russian ghost Silvia Ayuso From Brussels.
Trump had announced on Saturday that he would talk to Putin and Zelenski this Monday after, who postponed one day, they lasted just two hours and developed only among intermediate level delegations. His only tangible result was the commitment to exchange a thousand prisoners for side, which could happen this week, and the promises of continuing to talk.
These conversations had been organized to the suggestion of Putin himself, who at the last moment decided not to move to the Turkish city, including Ukraine accusations that Moscow had only proposed the appointment to gain time and dodge international pressures in favor of a high temporal fire.
Immediately before that negotiation session, and after knowing that Putin would not be present, Trump had advanced that there would be no great progress in Istanbul and that. The American not only avoided criticizing his counterpart for not having presented himself in the conversations, but also comprehensive: he said that Putin was only going to travel because he thought he was also going to be in the Turkish city.
Before the call between the two leaders, Vance declared to the press during his return trip in Rome, where he attended the Pontificate Mass of Pope Leo XIV, which the United States wants to “see results.” “We recognize that we are in a dead point. The president will tell President Putin: Are you serious about peace? Because the US proposal has always been that defrosting Russia’s relations with the rest of the world will carry many economic benefits to Moscow, but you will not materialize them if you continue to kill innocent people. If you are willing to stop deaths, the United States will be willing to be a partner for peace.”
“I honestly believe that President Putin does not know how to get out of this war,” added the vice president, who recalled that “two do not fight if one does not want. I know that the president wants to get (La Paz), but if Russia does not want to get it, we will have to end up saying: this is not our war … If we cannot end it, we will end up saying: Do you know what?
Throughout the weekend, numerous European leaders have talked with Trump or Vance to deal with them about war, and show that it is Putin, and not Zelenski, who is putting obstacles to stop war. Trump is usually always much more critical against the Ukrainian leader, whom in February he publicly abroaded in the Oval Office, than against the Russian president, whom he describes as someone “very intelligent.” The White House tenant has falsely accused Zelenski on several occasions of having caused the war, or of being a “dictator”, while considering that Kremlin’s failure to occupy Ukraine completely is a Russian “concession.” His tone, however, has been softened after both of them were seen again during the funeral by the late Pope Francis in Rome on April 26.
Skepticism in kyiv
The conversation without tangible results between Putin and Trump (apart from the good tune they say) has fallen as a jug of cold water in kyiv. The Office of the Presidency of Ukraine has transmitted to its public media a first assessment of the conversation between Washington and Moscow: the Russian president returns to the peace long when proposing, to accept a truce, that a memorandum of conditions is first negotiated.
kyiv’s position has not changed, they say in Bankova, the president’s headquarters: the two sides must secondary a high imminent fire of 30 days, without conditions, to start the dialogue. Ukraine is willing to do so, but not Russia. This is what Putin has made clear, according to Zelenski’s team.
Zelenski has assured in a meeting with the press that he is willing to negotiate this Russian memorandum but has reiterated that he does not plan to retire his troop from any territory of the country, something required by Russia at the meeting they held in Turkey with a Ukraine delegation. Zelenski has also asked that a future meeting on La Paz adds Ukrainians, Russians, American and Europeans.
The Ukrainian Head of State has also admitted that the US does not have the same will to press Russia with new sanctions packages: “USA is another story. We need to work together with the US,” Zelenski added, “but much depends on America. It depends much on allowing or not that the Russian army continues to receive money.”
This has been the third call between the two leaders since Trump was invested president. At least they have been public. The Washington Post He revealed in November last year that Trump maintained direct contacts with Putin even before returning to the White House. In their last telephone conversation of the two leaders, they agreed to high the fire around the energy infrastructure that.
Putin tempts Trump with doing new business since their bilateral negotiations began in February. This time, the Russian president took advantage of his last call with the Republican to promote the Sirius Center, an autonomous territory that was founded 10 years ago in southern Russia as a supposed technological nursery and talent collection point. The Kremlin made special emphasis on Monday that the conversation with Trump took place from this area financed by the State for the collection of new companies.
