US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he would speak with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine on Monday following talks between the two sides, where a Ukrainian official alleged that Moscow’s negotiators presented new demands before agreeing to a ceasefire.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed Russian news agencies that preparations were underway for a conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump.
The talks held in Turkey on Friday marked the first face-to-face discussions between the parties since March 2022, weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks revealed that Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine withdraw its troops from all Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire.
Trump, writing on Truth Social, stated that he would speak with Putin to discuss halting the war at 10 am Eastern (1400 GMT) on Monday.
“The subjects of the call will be, stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade,” he wrote.
He added that he would subsequently speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and various NATO members.
“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.”
Trump had offered to travel to Turkey for the talks while in the Gulf last week if Putin would also attend, but Putin sent a team of negotiators instead.
The president has been pressuring Putin and Zelenskiy to agree to a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict.
The Kremlin declined to comment on the terms presented by Russia at Friday’s meeting. The talks lasted only one hour and 40 minutes and resulted in an agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war on each side. The timing of the exchange remains unspecified.
Zelenskiy called for stronger sanctions on Moscow on Saturday after a Russian drone attack killed nine bus passengers in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine. “This was a deliberate killing of civilians,” he stated. “Pressure must be exerted on Russia to stop the killings. Without tougher sanctions, without stronger pressure, Russia will not seek real diplomacy.”
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, claimed it struck a military target in Sumy. Its defense ministry reported that Russian troops had captured another settlement in eastern Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and welcomed the “positive role” of the United States in facilitating the resumption of talks between Russia and Ukraine. A Russian foreign ministry statement indicated that contacts would continue.
Rubio told the CBS news program Face the Nation that Lavrov said the Russians were “working on a series of ideas and requirements that they would have in order to move forward with a ceasefire and further negotiations.”
“I think your question is, ‘Are they tapping us along?'” he said in the interview to be broadcast on Sunday. “Well, that’s what we’re trying to find out.”
Rubio, who had previously suggested that the Vatican could be a venue for further Russia-Ukraine dialogue, told CBS it was a “very generous offer that may be taken up on.”
Push for Immediate Ceasefire
Ukraine and Western governments, including the US, have demanded that Russia agree to an immediate, unconditional ceasefire lasting at least 30 days.
However, the Ukrainian source indicated that Moscow’s negotiators demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, with a ceasefire contingent upon this withdrawal.
The source claimed that these and other demands exceeded the terms of a draft peace deal proposed by the United States last month after consultations with Moscow.
Peskov declined to comment on the Ukrainian account, stating that talks should be conducted “absolutely behind closed doors.”
He said that the next steps would be to carry out the prisoner exchange and facilitate further discussions between the two sides. Peskov suggested that a meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy was possible, but only if “certain agreements” were reached, without specifying what those agreements might be.
Zelenskiy had challenged Putin to meet him in person earlier in the week, an offer that the Russian leader ignored.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan affirmed his country’s commitment to continuing its mediation role after hosting the talks.
Ukraine Seeks Increased Support
Following Friday’s meeting, Ukraine began rallying support from its allies to take stronger action against Moscow.
“Once again, Russia is not serious,” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Reuters during a visit to Pakistan. “At what point do we say to Putin enough is enough?”
French President Emmanuel Macron also characterized the talks in Istanbul as fruitless.
“Today, what do we have? Nothing. And so I tell you, faced with President Putin’s cynicism, I am sure that President Trump, mindful of the credibility of the United States, will react.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the EU was working on a new package of sanctions against Moscow, which France suggested should aim to “suffocate” the Russian economy.
However, after more than three years of intensified sanctions, it remains unclear how much more they can achieve.
In their efforts to forge a united front and persuade Putin to accept a ceasefire, Ukraine and its European leaders have been repeatedly thrown off balance by interventions from Trump.
Having urged Zelenskiy to accept Russia’s offer of direct talks in Turkey, Trump stated on the eve of the meeting that there could be no progress on peace until he had met with Putin.
The Kremlin maintains that Putin is ready to meet Trump, but such a summit must be carefully prepared. They also stated that there had been no contact between Russia and the US since Friday’s talks.
