Igor Gielow
SAO PAULO, SP (FOLHAPRESS)-President Donald Trump spent just over two hours on the phone with his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin, but could not get the acceptance of an immediate ceasefire in the Ukraine war.
It was the third call released among the leaders since Trump returned to the White House in January, ending the total break that marked the relationship of the largest nuclear powers on the planet since Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022.
According to Putin told journalists in a Black Sea Black Stole Educational Center, where he made the call, the conversation was “productive”. “We are on the right track, in general,” he said. He said, however, that a truce is possible only “when certain agreements are made.”
He said he was ready to work on a “peace-agreeing” with the Ukrainians, maintaining the position of only accepting a ceasefire when he considers “the causes of conflict” to be negotiated. That is, to maintain Ukraine neutrally militarily and take the areas that illegally attached to 2022, minimum conditions that had already disclosed.
The Republican had first called the Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski, and would make a new call after speaking to Putin. There is not yet an account of the White House about the conversations.
Trump has been signaling exasperation with the lack of way out of the crisis, which seeks to mediate since returning to power. Russians and Ukrainians have gathered for the first time since 2022 last week in Turkey, but did not agree with a ceasefire: Moscow wants negotiation of what he calls reasons of conflict before an unconditional truce.
In Russian political media, there is a suggestion that the fighting will only be suspended if Ukraine in the face gives up what was left under its control of the four territories Putin took: Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporíjia and Kerson. Kiev rejects this.
Shortly before the phone calls, US Vice President Jd Vance had said the situation had reached an impasse and again said that the US should withdraw from the process to try to end the bloody conflict on European soil since 1945.
“We realize that there is a small impasse here. Honestly, I think President Putin is not sure how to get out of the war,” Vance said before leaving Italy. “It takes two to dance a tango. If Russia is not willing, then let’s just say: this is not our war.”
He has already used this terminology, which suggests the abandonment of American support to Kiev before, but was not endorsed by Trump, who seeks to negotiate in the shot style with Zelenski and Putin.
The president even freezes the sending of weapons to the Ukrainians, but he was resumed when Zelenski began to relax his position, and accepted a joint exploration agreement of strategic minerals with Washington.
The US is the biggest supporters of Kiev. From the beginning of the war until the end of February, according to the Institute for the World Economy of Kiel (Germany), Washington has sent the equivalent today to $ 727 billion, compared to $ 875 billion of all European countries together.
Most importantly, 56% of American aid is military in weapons. The value is five times higher than donated by the second largest war supporter in Ukraine, Germany. Since Trump’s return, continent countries discuss how to increase flow.
Conversations take place at a particularly violent moment of the conflict. On Sunday (18), Russia had launched the biggest attack with drones against Ukraine in the war.
273 devices were fired, with 88 being knocked down and 128, falling without consequences -were probably of inert models, without explosives and built with cheap material, which serve to attract the air defenses and reveal their positions to rivals. This Monday, at least five people died in bombing in the country.
On the inverse road, on Monday a drone killed a person in the Russian region of Belgorodo, according to local authorities. An attack alert was also decreed against Sochi’s resort in the Black Sea, where Putin spent the day at meetings.
