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For US President Donald Trump, yesterday’s phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was a serious attempt at convincing the leader to end the war in Ukraine. On the other hand, the two-hour-long conversation might have been just another run-of-the-mill discussion for Putin, who squeezed in Trump amid his tight schedule.
It is likely that both the leaders had expected different outcomes from the phone call. On the one hand, Trump held the phone call from the Oval Office and had previewed the call on his social media platform, Truth Social. On the other hand, Putin did not clear his schedule for the discussions and had picked up the US president’s call from a school for gifted children, which he was touring.
Trump has pinned his hopes on ending the conflict on a personal bond with Putin, even as he shows growing frustration with the Kremlin leader’s refusal to do a deal.
“ I believe it went very well ,” Trump said on his Truth Social network after Monday’s Putin call.
Recounting his call with Putin to reporters later, Putin said, “If I thought that President Putin did not want to get this over with, I wouldn’t even be talking about it. I’d just pull out. I think he’s had enough.”
The discussions between the two leaders come at a time when Putin failed to show up for a direct ceasefire negotiation meeting that he proposed last week. His no-show in Turkey led Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to believe that he is not “serious enough” for ceasefire.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe differing views on the leaders’ third phone call this year highlight Trump’s ongoing difficulties in trying to end the three-year war, which he recently called a “ bloodbath .”
While Trump has framed the two-hour conversation as a breakthrough, Putin struck a more reserved tone, saying he was ready to work with Kyiv on a memorandum towards ending the war Moscow launched in February 2022, but insisted on compromises on both sides.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy spoke to Trump both before and after the Putin call, urging the US president to toughen sanctions against Russia if it refused a ceasefire.
“I asked him not to make any decisions about Ukraine without us before his conversation with Putin,” Zelenskyy told reporters.
With inputs from agencies
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