Trump, Putin held ‘positive call,’ White House says

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President Donald Trump held a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday to discuss efforts to bring a halt to the war in Ukraine, according to the White House.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that the two leaders had “concluded a positive call.”

The discussion comes a day after Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, a meeting that delivered no clear breakthrough but saw the US president hail what he called “a lot of progress” toward a possible peace deal.

Trump said after the meeting with the Ukrainian leader that he was confident a deal was “getting a lot closer” though it might take a few weeks to conclude and there was no set timeline. Zelenskiy said Sunday the peace plan was “90% agreed.”

To be sure, it remains unclear whether Trump is any closer to his goal to securing an end to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which he pledged to halt on his first day back in office.

Ukrainian officials have toiled over the last few weeks to revise a 28-point draft plan originally proposed by the US but seen as overly favorable to Russia. The latest version has 20 points, but Moscow has warned that the plan includes elements it won’t accept, including on the size of Ukraine’s post-war military. Russia has insisted on maximalist demands for territory, including lands that it doesn’t fully control.

Zelenskiy, for his part, said he asked Trump for US security guarantees lasting as long as half a century to help deter any future Russian invasion.

Trump had said he held “very productive” phone talks with Putin shortly before he met with Zelenskiy on Sunday. The US and Ukrainian presidents spoke with European leaders after their discussion.