President Trump said Sunday he’d had a “very productive” phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin just hours before his planned face-to-face meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Florida.
Mr. Trump said the phone call was “good and very productive” but did not provide details about what was discussed. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the call lasted just over an hour and the two leaders agreed that a temporary truce would not stop the violence in Ukraine.
Mr. Ushakov added that Mr. Trump will speak to Mr. Putin again once his meeting with Mr. Zelenskyy is finished.
The president was set to meet with Mr. Zelenskyy at 1 p.m. Sunday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to iron out details of the latest plan to end the Russia–Ukraine war.
Mr. Trump said he and Mr. Zelenskyy may speak to a collection of European leaders by phone after the meeting. Mr. Zelenskyy spoke to the leaders of France, Finland, Germany, Italy and Poland earlier this week.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, organized the meeting last week after a phone call with the Ukrainian leader.
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The meeting follows a devastating Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv on Saturday that killed at least one person and left 22 injured. After the attack, Mr. Zelenskyy said that Mr. Putin is not interested in peace.
The summit between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelenskyy comes as Kyiv signals openness to significant concessions in the peace process, including recalling some of its forces from the contested Donbas region to create a demilitarized zone.
Russia, for its part, has called for further dialogue with the U.S. and its partners, but has rejected calls for a temporary ceasefire and has insisted on keeping all the land its military currently controls. Moscow has also demanded that Ukraine turn over control of the Donbas region to Russian forces.
