Speaking after the two-hour conversation, Putin said efforts to end the war were \u201cgenerally on the right track\u201d and that Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a potential peace deal.<\/p>\n
Addressing a press conference, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was considering a high-level meeting between Ukraine, Russia, the US, EU members and the UK. <\/p>\n
In a post on Truth social, Trump said: \u201cNegotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump said the Vatican, \u201cas represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations. Let the process begin!\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"VATICAN](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_252168649.jpg\")
JD Vance meet Pope Leo XIV at Vatican City (Photo: Vatican\/Corbis via Getty)<\/p>\n
Putin said: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The memorandum would define \u201ca number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
He said that if appropriate agreements were reached, there could be a ceasefire, adding that direct talks between Russia and Ukraine gave \u201creason to believe that we are generally on the right track.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main thing for us is to eliminate the root causes of this crisis,\u201d Putin said. \u201cWe just need to determine the most effective ways to move towards peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump is under pressure to secure progress in peace negotiations after pledging to resolve the conflict on \u201cday one\u201d<\/a> of his second term.<\/p>\n He has brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia since re-entering the White House, but has so far failed to bring about any lasting progress.<\/a><\/p>\n Putin took the call in a music school in the southern Russian resort city of Sochi, Russian state TV reported.<\/p>\n Shortly before it, US Vice President JD Vance said that peace talks had hit an \u201cimpasse\u201d because Russia\u2019s leader did not have a \u201cstrategy\u201d for ending the war.<\/p>\n \u201cI think, honestly, that President Putin, he doesn\u2019t quite know how to get out of the war,\u201d Vance said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a million men under arms. He\u2019s re-engineered his entire economy\u2026 I\u2019m not sure that Vladimir Putin has a strategy for how to unwind the war.\u201d<\/p>\n First direct Ukraine-Russia talks fail<\/p>\n Russia and Ukraine held their first direct talks in Turkey on Friday, though neither Putin nor Trump attended<\/a>. The two sides agreed to a large-scale prisoner exchange but appeared not to make progress on ending the conflict.<\/p>\n Russia reportedly demanded further territory from Ukraine during the talks.<\/p>\n In the run-up to the meeting, Kyiv had pushed for a 30-day ceasefire but the Kremlin has rejected this.<\/p>\n Hours after the talks concluded, a Russian attack hit a bus carrying civilians in Ukraine\u2019s Sumy region<\/a>, killing at least nine people and injuring four, according to local authorities.<\/p>\n Russia is widely considered to be stalling negotiations, with little incentive to bring the conflict to a close<\/a> as it holds an advantage on the battlefield.<\/p>\n The Kremlin has set out a series of maximalist demands in peace talks, seeking not only to control of swathes of Ukrainian territory, but also to ensure Kyiv\u2019s military is rendered ineffective, by reducing the size of its army, banning it from joining Nato, and preventing it from receiving military support from allies.<\/p>\n A 30-hour Easter ceasefire, also brokered by Trump, brokedown after Russia was accused of carrying out hundreds of shellings and drone attacks.<\/p>\n Trump has been attempting to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine<\/a> since returning to the White House in February, but the talks have largely failed to bear fruit except for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, which is considered largely inconsequential<\/a> to the course of the war.<\/p>\n Throughout the negotiations, the US President has caused alarm among Nato allies with his apparent sympathy towards Putin and hostility to Ukraine, blaming Ukraine for starting the war, temporarily withholding intelligence from Kyiv<\/a> and threatening to pull military support, as well as hinting that he would withdraw from the Nato military alliance<\/a> altogether.<\/p>\n![\"Russian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_251557941.jpg\")
Ukrainian (left) and Russian (right) delegations attend talks at Dolmabah\u00e7e Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, last week (Photo: Ramil Sitdikov\/Pool via AP)<\/p>\n![\"(FILES)](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SEI_249490180.jpg\")
Volodymyr Zelensky meeting Donald Trump at Pope Francis\u2019s funeral (Photo: Ukrainian Foreign Ministry\/AFP)Trump-Putin relations cooling<\/p>\n