US President Donald Trump said that Moscow and Kyiv will "immediately" begin cease-fire talks following his latest call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
In a post on TruthSocial, Trump said his May 19 call with Putin lasted two hours and went "very well."
Russia and Ukraine "will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War. The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties," he said in the post.
In remarks to Russian media, Putin said the call was "very substantive and quite frank." He said that Moscow would prepare a memorandum with pre-conditions for a cease-fire.
Trump has made ending the fighting in Ukraine a top foreign policy priority since taking office four months ago. In March, Trump demanded the two sides immediately agree to a 30-day cease-fire. He has repeated that demand since then, saying he would sanction any country undermining a ceases-fire.
While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to the White House proposal, Putin has refused, demanding that Kyiv agree to certain pre-conditions first, such as recognition of Russia's annexation of Ukrainian territory, the country's demilitarization and neutral status.
Prior to Trump's call with Putin, Zelenskyy reiterated his support for Trump's initial 30-day cease-fire proposal.
"Ukraine insists on the need for a full and unconditional ceasefire in order to save human lives and to establish the necessary foundation for diplomacy. Such a ceasefire must be long enough and include the possibility of extension," Zelenskyy said in a May 19 post on X.
Following Putin's latest rejection of his 30-day cease-fire proposal, Trump did not make any mention of further sanctions against Russia in his post. Rather, he highlighted the benefits Russia could gain in trade with the US should a deal be reached.
"Russia wants to do largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic “bloodbath” is over, and I agree. There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is UNLIMITED," he wrote.
US Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina) last month submitted a bill that would punish Russia for not ending the war. Western experts have said that Trump could force Putin to the negotiating table by ratcheting up sanctions.
Another round of Western sanctions would come an an increasing difficult time for the Russian economy. The country's economic growth slowed sharply in the first quarter and could be headed toward a "hard landing," Capital Economics wrote in a May 16 note.
In his remarks to Russian media following the call with Trump, Putin reiterated the need to "eliminate the root causes of this crisis," a reference to NATO expansion and Ukraine's desire to join the Western alliance.
"We just need to determine the most effective ways to move towards peace," Putin said.
Stephan Kieninger, a non-resident fellow at the American German Institute, said the readouts of the call indicated little progress had been made.
"There is no indication of any kind of shift in Russia's position," Kieninger told RFE/RL.
Experts say that Putin has no interest in a cease-fire now because his forces have momentum on the battlefield and he has yet to achieve any major objectives.
While Russia has gained territory in eastern Ukraine during the nearly 40-month war, it does not fully control the four Ukrainian regions -- Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, Kherson -- it claims to have annexed. A cease-fire now would leave Ukraine an independent, well-armed country.
Istanbul Meetings
Trump had announced the calls after Russian and Ukrainian negotiations met in Istanbul for face-to-face talks. It was the first time the two sides have met since the early weeks after Russia launched its all-out invasion in February 2022.
"The subjects of the call will be stopping the 'bloodbath'," Trump wrote in a post to social media. "Hopefully it will be a productive day, a cease-fire will take place, and this very violent war, a war that should have never happened, will end."
The Istanbul meetings, which included separate conversations with US officials, yielded only modest results, including an agreement to swap as many as 1,000 prisoners of war. There no pledge to halt fighting and over the weekend, Russia launched what Ukraine said was one of its largest drone barrages
Russian negotiators reportedly made maximalist demands of Ukraine -- calling on Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the four regions and other conditions that had been made in spring 2022. Those conditions have been widely rejected by Ukraine, and many of its Western allies, as nonstarters.
"Russia is completely focused on the past, rejecting the cease-fire and instead talking constantly about the 2022 Istanbul meetings, attempting to make the same absurd demands as three years ago," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said in a post to X. "This is yet another reason why pressure on Russia must be increased. Moscow must now understand the consequences of impeding the peace process."
After a period of initial tensions with Kyiv, White House frustrations have shifted to Moscow, and the tone of public remarks from US officials has sharpened. Trump has suggested Putin was "tapping" him along and seeking further talks without any genuine intention of seeking peace.
"Are they tapping us along? Well, that's what we're trying to find out," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with CBS News broadcast May 18.
"On the one hand, we're trying to achieve peace and end a very bloody, costly, and destructive war, so there's some element of patience that is required," Rubio said. "On the other hand, we don't have time to waste."
Zelenskyy traveled to Turkey last week, along with his negotiators, and pledged to meet with Putin; the last time the two met was in 2019, before the war. But Putin announced at the last minute that he would not travel to Turkey.
Zelenskyy also traveled to the Vatican over the weekend, seeking support from newly installed Pope Leo XIV. The Ukrainian leader also met with US Vice President JD Vance and Rubio in Rome.
It was Zelenskyy's first meeting with Vance since an acrimonious encounter in the White House in February, where Vance berated the Ukrainian leader before TV cameras.
