Journal De Bruxelles - Trump to hold call with Putin in push for Ukraine ceasefire

Trump had vowed during the US election campaign to halt the conflict within a day of taking office, but his diplomatic efforts have so far yielded little progress.

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine held direct negotiations in Istanbul last week for the first time in almost three years, but the talks ended without a commitment to a ceasefire.

Both sides traded insults, with Ukraine accusing Moscow of sending a "dummy" delegation of low-ranking officials.

After the negotiations, Trump announced that he would speak by phone with the Russian president in a bid to end the "bloodbath" in Ukraine, which has destroyed large swathes of the country and displaced millions of people.

Trump also said he would speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO officials, expressing hope that a "ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war... will end".

Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly stressed that he wants to see an end to the conflict, and has recently backed calls for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

So far, he has mainly focused on upping the pressure on Ukraine and abstained from criticising Putin.

Both Moscow and Washington have previously stressed the need for a meeting on the conflict between Putin and Trump.

The US president has also argued that "nothing's going to happen" on the conflict until he meets Putin face-to-face.

- Push for sanctions -

At the talks in Istanbul, which were also attended by US officials, Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each and trade ideas on a possible truce, but with no concrete commitment.

Ukraine's top negotiator, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, said that the "next step" would be a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.

Russia said it had taken note of the request.

"We consider it possible, but only as a result of the work and upon achieving certain results in the form of an agreement between the two sides," the Kremlin's spokesperson said.

Ukraine's western allies have since accused Putin of deliberately ignoring calls for a ceasefire and pushed for fresh sanctions against Russia.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy held a phone call with Trump on Sunday.

"Looking ahead to President Trump's call with President Putin tomorrow, the leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and for President Putin to take peace talks seriously," said a spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

"They also discussed the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and peace talks," the spokesman said.

Zelensky also discussed possible sanctions with US Vice President JD Vance when they met after Pope Leo's inaugural mass at the Vatican on Sunday.

"We discussed the talks in Istanbul, where the Russians sent a low-level delegation with no decision-making powers," Zelensky wrote on Telegram following the meeting.

"We also touched on the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defence cooperation, the situation on the battlefield and the future exchange of prisoners."

A senior Ukrainian official from the president's office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that they had also discussed preparations for Monday's telephone conversation between Trump and Putin.

- 'Root causes' -

It was the first meeting between Zelensky and Vance since their heated White House exchange in February.

In the Oval Office, Vance publicly accused Zelensky of being "disrespectful" towards Trump, who told the Ukrainian leader he should be more grateful and that he had no "cards" to play in negotiations with Russia.

Ukraine on Sunday said that Russia had launched a record number of drones at the country overnight, targeting various regions, including the capital Kyiv, where a woman was killed.

Another man was killed in the southeastern Kherson region, where a railway station and private houses and cars were hit.

In an interview with Russian state TV published on Sunday, Putin said that Moscow's aim was to "eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia's security", without elaborating further.

Russia's references to the "root causes" of the conflict typically refer to grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the invasion in February 2022.

They include pledges to "de-Nazify" and demilitarise Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country's east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine's westward geopolitical drift.

However, Kyiv and the West say that Russia's invasion is an imperial-style land grab.

P.Claes--JdB