President Donald Trump said he plans to speak by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the morning of May 19, followed by calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO allies, in an effort to broker a cease-fire in the Ukraine war.
“I will be speaking, by telephone, to President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Monday, at 10:00 a.m.,” Trump wrote in a post on social media on May 17. “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.”
Trump added that he would then speak with Zelenskyy and various NATO allies to build support for ending what he called “a war that should have never happened.”
“Hopefully it will be a productive day, a ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war will end,” Trump wrote. “God bless us all!”
Trump’s remarks come on the heels of the first direct peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv since 2022, which were held in Istanbul on May 16 and failed to yield a cease-fire. The talks, which lasted nearly two hours, resulted only in an agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each—the largest such swap since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.
Putin had proposed holding negotiations “without preconditions” but rejected Zelenskyy’s request for a face-to-face meeting. In response, Zelenskyy sent a lower-level delegation, led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, to meet with a Russian team headed by Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky.
Both sides confirmed the prisoner exchange deal but offered few additional details.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on any further conditions discussed at the talks, telling reporters in Moscow on May 17 that negotiations “are taking place behind closed doors, just as they should—to ensure they are productive.”
Peskov added that Russia plans to present Ukraine with a list of cease-fire conditions but did not specify a timeline. He also did not rule out a future meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, saying it would depend on the success of the prisoner exchange and progress in further talks.
