Putin-Trump phone conversation: As it happened
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone with his US counterpart, Donald Trump. The conversation on Monday focused on the Ukraine conflict and a possible ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev.
The phone call was initially announced by Trump on Saturday. The US president said the discussion will focus on “stopping the ‘bloodbath’” between Russia and Ukraine, as well as on bilateral trade issues.
Moscow has described the upcoming conversation between the two presidents as “important,” with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stating the call will be based on the results of the recent Turkish-mediated meeting between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul. Russia welcomes the US mediation role and sees the diplomatic path to resolving the Ukraine conflict as preferable, Peskov stressed on Monday.
“We highly value the United States’ mediating efforts – if they truly help us achieve our objectives by peaceful means,” he said.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy and a key figure behind kickstarting the Ukraine peace process, has expressed hope that the call will be “very successful” and can help clear “some of the logjam” in the negotiations.
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20 May 2025
01:19 GMT
President Donald Trump has expressed hope that “something is going to happen” following his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, although he said it remains unclear whether Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky is fully committed to ending the conflict with Moscow.
Trump, who has repeatedly said he found it easier to deal with Moscow than Kiev while seeking to broker peace between the two countries, reiterated similar sentiment on Monday when asked if he believes Ukraine is “doing enough” to end the hostilities.
“I’d rather tell you in about two weeks from now, because I can’t say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’… Look, Zelensky is a strong guy, and he’s not the easiest person to deal with. But I think that he wants to stop… I hope the answer is that he wants to get it solved,” Trump told reporters at the White House
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19 May 2025
22:39 GMT
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that during their phone call, the US and Russian presidents discussed the restoration of direct contacts between Moscow and Kiev, laying the groundwork for further negotiations and the development of an initial memorandum aimed at resolving the conflict.
The draft memorandum will be jointly formulated by Russia and Ukraine, Peskov noted, emphasizing that “the devil is in the details” and that no concrete deadlines have been set. He described the drafting process as a “complex task” that will require time and careful coordination between the two sides.
The United States, he added, remains actively involved in the mediation efforts. All parties, including Moscow, are interested in a swift resolution to the crisis, Peskov said, stressing that Russia’s primary goal is to eliminate the root causes of the conflict.
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22:16 GMT
Washington should never have intervened in the Ukraine conflict, President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House, blaming the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden for fueling the crisis and spending “hundreds of billions” of US taxpayer dollars to arm Kiev.
“This is not our war. This is not my war… I mean, we got ourselves entangled in something that we shouldn’t have been involved in. And we would have been a lot better off — and maybe the whole thing would have been better off — because it can’t be much worse. It’s a real mess,” Trump said.
“Again, this was a European situation. It should have remained a European situation. But we got involved — much more than Europe did — because the past administration felt very strongly that we should… We gave massive amounts, I think record setting amounts… both weaponry and money,” he added.
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20:44 GMT
Russia and the US “can and will be great partners on economic and investment cooperation,” Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy and one of the key figures in the ongoing contacts between the two nations, Kirill Dmitriev, wrote on X in the aftermath of the talks.
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