Putin says he had 'useful' call with Trump on Ukraine, lasted for more than two hours

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he held a "useful" phone call with his US counterpart, Donald Trump, on the Ukraine issue, which lasted for more than two hours, reported news agency AFP quoting Russian media.

Trump spoke with Putin as the US president sought a breakthrough to end the grinding conflict triggered by Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The US President is pinning his hopes on a fresh personal appeal to Putin to get the Kremlin leader to agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire with Kyiv.

Trump is also set to speak to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO officials during the day as he scrambles to find a solution to the three-year-old war.

The 78-year-old Republican vowed during his US election campaign to halt the Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office, but his diplomatic efforts have so far yielded little progress.

Vice President JD Vance said that Trump was losing patience. "There's a bit of an impasse here, and I think the president's going to say to President Putin, look, are you serious?" Vance told reporters as he left Rome, where he met both Pope Leo XIV and Zelensky.

"If Russia is not willing to do that, then we're eventually just going have to say, this is not our war."

Trump has directed much of his frustration towards Ukraine -- including during a blazing Oval Office row with Zelensky in February -- while abstaining from extensively criticizing Putin.

The White House declined to take sides Monday, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying the president has "grown weary and frustrated with both sides."

Trump still hoped to meet Putin, she added, after the US president said that face-to-face talks were the only way to end the conflict.

Trump had held out the possibility of joining Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul last week if there was a chance of meeting Putin, but the Russian leader was a no-show.

Moscow insisted Monday it would prefer to end the conflict through diplomacy.

"It is preferable to achieve our goals through political and diplomatic means, of course," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state media, adding that Russia "highly valued" Washington's attempts to end the fighting.

Zelensky refreshed his push for a full ceasefire ahead of the call.

"Ukraine insists on the need for a full and unconditional ceasefire in order to save human lives and to establish the necessary foundation for diplomacy," he said on social media.