Trump hopes for ceasefire progress in Russia-Ukraine war in Monday calls with Putin and Zelenskyy

WASHINGTON AP President Donald Trump is hoping separate phone calls Monday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will make progress toward a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine Trump expressed his hopes for a productive day Monday and a ceasefire in a social media post over the weekend His effort will also include calls to NATO leaders Trump has struggled to end a war that began with Russia s invasion in February and that makes these conversations a serious test of his reputation as a dealmaker after having claimed he would speedily settle the conflict once he was back in the White House if not even before he took office The Republican president is banking on the idea that his force of personality and personal history with Putin will be enough to break any impasse over a pause in the fighting His sensibilities are that he s got to get on the phone with President Putin and that is going to clear up several of the logjam and get us to the place that we need to get to stated Trump s envoy Steve Witkoff I think it s going to be a very accomplished call Still there are fears that Trump has an affinity for Putin that could put Ukraine at a disadvantage with any agreements engineered by the U S governing body Bridget Brink revealed she resigned last month as the U S ambassador to Ukraine because the initiative since the beginning of the administration was to put pressure on the victim Ukraine rather than on the aggressor Russia Brink mentioned the sign that she needed to depart was an Oval Office meeting in February where Trump and his group openly berated Zelenskyy for not being sufficiently deferential to them I believe that peace at any price is not peace at all Brink revealed It s appeasement and as we know from history appeasement only leads to more war Trump s frustration about the war had been building before his post Saturday on Truth Social about the coming calls which he disclosed would begin first with Putin at a m Monday Trump disclosed his discussion with Putin would focus on stopping the bloodbath of the war It also will cover commerce a sign that Trump might be seeking to use financial incentives to broker specific kind of agreement after Russia s invasion led to severe sanctions by the United States and its allies that have steadily eroded Moscow s ability to grow Trump s hope according to the post is that a war that should have never happened will end His treasury secretary Scott Bessent reported Sunday on NBC s Meet the Press that Trump had made it clear that a failure by Putin to negotiate in good faith could lead to additional sanctions against Russia Bessent suggested the sanctions that began during the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden were inadequate because they did not stop Russia s oil revenues due to concerns that doing so would increase U S prices The United States sought to cap Russia s oil revenues while preserving the country s petroleum exports to limit the damage from the inflation that the war produced Putin just now rejected an offer by Zelenskyy to meet in-person in Turkey as an alternative to a -day ceasefire urged by Ukraine and its Western allies including Washington Those talks ended on Friday after less than two hours without a ceasefire in place Still both countries committed to exchange prisoners of war each with Ukraine s intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov saying on Ukrainian television Saturday that the exchanges could happen as early as this week While wrapping up his four-day trip to the Middle East Trump announced on Friday that Putin had not gone to Turkey because Trump himself wasn t there He and I will meet and I think we ll solve it or maybe not Trump reported reporters after boarding Air Force One At least we ll know And if we don t solve it it ll be very intriguing Zelenskyy met with Trump s vice president JD Vance and top diplomat Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Rome on Sunday as well as European leaders intensifying his efforts before the Monday calls The Ukrainian president commented on the social media site X that during his talks with the American agents they discussed the negotiations in Turkey and that the Russians sent a low level delegation of non-decision-makers He also disclosed he stressed that Ukraine is engaged in real diplomacy to have a ceasefire We have also touched upon the need for sanctions against Russia bilateral contract defense cooperation battlefield situation and upcoming prisoners exchange Zelenskyy reported Pressure is needed against Russia until they are eager to stop the war The German executive declared Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French British and Italian leaders spoke with Trump late Sunday about the situation in Ukraine and his upcoming call with Putin A brief comment gave no details of the conversation but commented the plan is for the exchange to be continued directly after the Trump-Putin call In a post on X about the conversation French President Emmanuel Macron stated that Putin on Monday must show he wants peace by accepting the -day unconditional ceasefire proposed by President Trump and backed by Ukraine and Europe The push came as the Kremlin launched its largest drone barrage against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in firing a total of exploding drones and decoys Ukraine s air force noted Sunday The attacks targeted the country s Kyiv Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions Witkoff spoke Sunday on ABC s This Week and Brink appeared on CBS Face the Nation