No breakthrough during Trump phone calls about Ukraine peace

US President Donald Trump on Monday suggested Russia and Ukraine make a deal directly with each other and that both countries could get enormous economic benefits from ending the war, which has now dragged on for three years.

After a two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which both leaders addressed each other by first names, Trump said Moscow and Kiev will "immediately start negotiations" toward a ceasefire and a broader peace deal to end the war, and thereafter both will rake in tremendous trade benefits.

The conditions would be negotiated directly between the two parties, "as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of," Trump said in a statement.

He said the "tone and spirit" of his call with Putin was "excellent".

"There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is UNLIMITED," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

"Russia wants to do largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic 'bloodbath' is over, and I agree," Trump said, adding that Ukraine can also be a "great beneficiary on Trade, in the process of rebuilding its Country."

The Trump-Putin phone call grabbed widespread attention. Trump has said that the only way to resolve the conflict is through direct talks between him and Putin, according to a report by The Washington Post on Monday.

The conversation also followed a meeting on Friday in Istanbul, the first high-level talks between Russia and Ukraine since the onset of their conflicts in spring 2022.

Those talks in Turkiye, lasting less than two hours, ended without bringing about a pause in the fighting, though there was a commitment to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each.

While concluding his four-day trip to the Middle East, Trump said on Friday that Putin had not gone to Turkiye because Trump himself wasn't there.

"He and I will meet, and I think we'll solve it or maybe not," Trump told reporters on Friday. "At least we'll know. And if we don't solve it, it'll be very interesting."

Ahead of the call, Trump's press secretary said the president had grown "weary and frustrated" with both sides of the conflict.

"He has made it clear to both sides that he wants to see a peaceful resolution and ceasefire as soon as possible," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

The conversation, as it turned out, did not appear to have yielded major breakthroughs. It was not clear when or where any talks might take place or who would participate, The Associated Press reported.

On Monday, Trump said he informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and leaders of the European Commission, France, Italy, Germany and Finland about the call, and floated the Vatican as a potential site for talks.

Later on in the day, Trump said "some progress has been made" in the phone call.

"It's a terrible situation going on over there — 5,000 young people every single week are being killed," Trump said. "So, hopefully we did something. We also spoke to the heads of most of the European nations, and we're trying to get that whole thing wrapped up. What a shame that it ever started in the first place."

Putin said his talk with Trump was productive. He said in televised remarks that it was "meaningful and quite frank, and overall in my view very useful."

"We have agreed with the president of the United States that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord," he said after the call.

That memorandum would define "a number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement."

"The main thing for us is to eliminate the root causes of this crisis," Putin said. "We just need to determine the most effective ways to move toward peace."

Zelensky, who spoke to Trump on a one-on-one call before the Putin call and then jointly with European leaders after, said he reaffirmed to Trump that Ukraine is ready for a "full and unconditional" ceasefire, and "it is important not to dilute this proposal."

He also wrote in a post on X that "Ukraine is ready for direct negotiations with Russia in any format that brings results."

Reuters contributed to this report.

huanxinzhao@chinadailyusa.com