President Trump is set to hold a critical Monday phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid rising tensions between the two countries over the Ukraine war.
Trump has said he will discuss the war with Putin, and then will hold a separate call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as the leaders of other countries supporting Ukraine.
Trump campaigned on a vow to end the Russia-Ukraine war but has had little success so far, largely because Putin has been intransigent in terms of offering concessions. There have been signs of growing frustration with Putin in the Trump administration over his stance on the war.
Putin has been accused by some in the West of slow-walking Trump. Last week, he sent lower-level officials to a meeting in Turkey after rumors, somewhat fanned by Trump, that Putin could actually show up for those talks.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio left those talks before they began given the level of officials sent by Moscow. Rubio said at that time that a discussion involving Putin and Trump was the only way to move a peace process forward.
Trump announced the call with Putin in a Truth Social message on Saturday, saying it would be about stopping the “bloodbath” in Ukraine.
“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 wrote.
The president has been seen by critics as siding too much with Putin and over Zelensky and Ukraine over the war, a sense augmented by a testy blowup in the White House in February during an on-camera press event featuring Trump, Vice President Vance and the Ukrainian leader.
Since then, Zelensky has worked double time to signal his appreciation for Trump’s efforts, including having his country agree to a mineral rights deal with the United States that could serve as a form of payment for U.S. support in the war.
The U.S. has been pressing for a 30-day ceasefire to the war.
Rubio had a discussion with his Russian counterpart on Saturday in which he suggested the Vatican could be used as a site for future peace talks between the countries to end the war.
Updated at 8:58 a.m. EDT
