Trump Says He Will Call Putin On Monday To Discuss The War In Ukraine

“HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said he plans to speak by phone Monday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, followed by Ukraine’s president and NATO allies, about ending what he called a “bloodbath” in Ukraine.

“HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY, A CEASEFIRE WILL TAKE PLACE, AND THIS VERY VIOLENT WAR, A WAR THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED, WILL END,” Trump wrote Saturday in a post on his social networking site, Truth Social.

Trump’s remarks came less than a day after the first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in years failed to yield a ceasefire. Putin had spurned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s offer to meet face-to-face in Turkey after he himself proposed negotiations in Istanbul “without preconditions” as an alternative to the “full and unconditional” ceasefire urged by Ukraine and its Western allies, including the U.S.

Earlier Saturday, a Russian drone hit a bus evacuating civilians from a front-line area in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, killing nine people, Ukrainian officials said. The strike came hours after the Russian and Ukrainian delegations left Istanbul after agreeing to a large exchange of prisoners of war.

A town in mourning