Trump, Putin phone call makes little progress

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed Ukraine over the phone on Monday. Both leaders said their conversation went well, but no major progress was made on negotiations to reach peace.

Putin said the conversation was frank and productive. He says a temporary ceasefire is possible, if relevant agreements can be reached. Putin said "We have agreed with the president of the United States that Russia is ready and will continue to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a potential future peace treaty."

Putin also stressed Moscow's conventional claims, saying the main thing is to eliminate the root causes of the crisis. Trump said the two-hour talk went very well and claimed that Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire. But he later told reporters that there is a limit to how far he can push Moscow and Kyiv toward peace.

Trump said:" This is not my war. This is not war. I mean, we got ourselves entangled in something that we shouldn't have been involved in. Trump also said it would be great to hold ceasefire talks at the Vatican as it would add extra significance to the proceedings. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated that he's waiting to hear from Moscow on starting ceasefire talks.

Zelenskyy said: "We need to see the Russian proposal first, then we can put together our thoughts. If we cannot support their proposal, we want an opportunity to discuss with President Trump."

Zelenskyy added that he wants the US, Ukraine, Russia, and European countries to meet for talks in Turkey, the Vatican or Switzerland in the near future.

Source: NHK World

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