WASHINGTON (TNND) — President Donald Trump engaged in a series of high-stakes phone calls with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia after peace talks between the two nations stalled. Trump spoke individually with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, followed by a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky along with other European leaders, according to the President’s Truth Social post following the talks.
“We just spent 2.5 hours talking to Vladimir Putin, and it’s a terrible situation, but I think some progress has been made,” Trump said during a bill signing at the White House on Monday afternoon.
On Truth Social, Trump described the call with Putin as having gone “very well,” stating that Russia and Ukraine would immediately start negotiations on a ceasefire and an end to the war. He also mentioned that Russia is interested in engaging in large-scale trade with the United States and that the Vatican is interested in hosting the peace talks.
Prior to the call, Vice President JD Vance speculated that Putin might not know how to exit the conflict he initiated with Ukraine.
“He’s re-engineered his entire economy, what used to be manufacturing facilities, making products for people to use in their civilian life, and now making tank shells and artillery shells and drones,” Vance said. “And so this is a little bit of a guess, but I think the president would agree that part of this is I’m not sure that Vladimir Putin has a strategy himself for how to unwind the war.”
The phone calls followed a weekend drone blitz on Ukraine by Russia, during which more than 270 exploding drones and decoys were deployed. The Vice President met with Zelensky in Rome over the weekend to discuss peace negotiations and a potential ceasefire, as well as to mend relations after a contentious Oval Office exchange in February. The meeting in the Oval Office at times devolved into a shouting match between Zelensky, Trump, and Vance, but that is apparently in the past, with Zelensky engaging with both Trump and Vance in the past month during different trips to Italy.
Putin did not attend face-to-face peace negotiations in Turkey last week that he had initially called for, leading to increased frustration from President Trump regarding the progress of talks. The President has indicated that the prospect of imposing tough sanctions on Russia is back on the table, though he expressed hope that such measures would not be necessary.