Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump to push Putin to end Ukraine ‘bloodbath’ in crucial phone call today
Donald Trump is holding crunch talks with Vladimir Putin today to speed up ceasefire efforts after Western leaders demanded an immediate truce.
The 3pm phone call to end the “bloodbath” comes after Trump last week vowed to meet Putin “as soon as we can” during a diplomatic fiasco prompted by the Russian president shunning peace talks in Turkey.
The US president’s renewed effort to end the war in Ukraine will also include calls to Nato leaders and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, but the Trump administration has insisted Russia and the US are the only ones who can bring an end to the conflict.
“I will be speaking, by telephone, to President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Monday at 10am. The subjects of the call will be stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial.
A flurry of diplomatic activity began when Zelensky met with US vice president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and European leaders in Rome yesterday, as he intensified his efforts ahead of Trump’s call with Putin.
Meanwhile, Kyiv’s military intelligence agency has warned Russia could test-launch its intercontinental ballistic missile in a drill to intimidate Ukraine. Russia also carried out its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war on Sunday and fired at least 273 drones, killing one woman.
