Donald Trump Calls Vladimir Putin In Push For Ukraine Ceasefire

US President Donald Trump spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over a phone call on Monday to discuss an agreeable solution to the war in Ukraine. The two leaders discussed ways to find a ceasefire amid intensifying demands for it across Europe. The war in Ukraine has been the deadliest conflict in the region since World War Two.

Today's talks come nearly a week after President Trump, who wants to be seen as a global peacemaker, said that a solution to the Russia-Ukraine war can come only after he and President Putin meet or talk directly.

'STOPPING THE BLOODBATH'

In 2022, as Ukraine was firming up plans to join NATO and allow the western alliance to send troops and set up bases right on the Russian front, President Putin ordered his country's military to take control of the situation by marching into the country. Moscow considers Ukraine joining NATO a red line.

The war, which has been on since, has become the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Hundreds of thousands of people, a majority of them soldiers have died in battle. Several hundred thousand others injured.

Donald Trump has repeatedly urged both sides to end this "bloodbath". With increasing pressure from the US President, senior officials from Ukraine and Russia met in Istanbul last week. This was the first such direct talks since the beginning of the war.

48 hours before his scheduled phone call with President Putin, Donald Trump had written on his social media platform Truth Social that "The subjects of the call will be stopping the 'bloodbath' that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade," adding that "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 INTENSIFIES PRESSURE, PUTIN STANDS FIRM ON CONDITIONS

The Trump administration has been building pressure on both Moscow and Kyiv to negotiate an early, if not immediate ceasefire. While Russia has been told that it could face additional US sanctions if it does not take the peace talks seriously, Ukraine's President Zelensky has been told that US' backing and supplies may become harder to get unless talks are approached with flexibility.

President Trump has also said that he will speak with NATO members and European leaders to ensure their actions don't delay a ceasefire.

Vladimir Putin, whose military now controls more than 20 per cent or a fifth of Ukraine's total area and are advancing steadily, has made his conditions for a ceasefire crystal clear - First, Ukraine won't, and shall never in future, join NATO; Second, Crimea to be recognised solely as Russian territory; and Third, Russia must be allowed to keep all the land it has taken control of during the war, and be handed over the entire territory of the four Ukrainian regions Russia claims.

Ukraine has unequivocally rejected these conditions. Neither side has been willing to budge from its stance despite intense pressure from President Trump. Moscow has totally ignored warnings from Europe.

As recently as Sunday - a day before Trump and Putin's phone call, Moscow had launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war.