Kiev [Ukraine] / Washington [US], May 18: US President Donald Trump said he will speak with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, and NATO officials on Monday in an effort to stop the war, as Russia's pounding of Ukraine continued on Saturday.
Trump, in a post on his Truth Social network, said he will speak with Putin by phone at 10 am (1400 GMT) on Monday and will speak with Zelensky and some NATO members after that. Just hours before the post, Russia deliberately attacked civilians in a drone attack on a bus in the border town of Bilopillia in the Sumy region, leaving nine people dead, Zelensky charged.
Seven people were injured. Zelensky said they suffered burns and broken bones.
The attack came a day after Russian-Ukrainian talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, launched by Russia more than three years ago. Zelensky said he saw the attack as further proof that Russia has no interest in a ceasefire and demanded stronger pressure in the form of sanctions on Moscow in order to stop the killing.
British Foreign Minister David Lammy also condemned the attack.
"Appalled by Russia's attack in Sumy, mere hours after talks in Türkiye," Lammy posted on X, using an alternative spelling of Turkey.
"If Putin is serious about peace, Russia must agree to a full and immediate ceasefire, as Ukraine has done," he said.
Trump, who has long seen himself as a dealmaker, had said that he would end the Russia-Ukraine war even before he took office, which was nearly four months ago.
At his talks last week in the Middle East, Trump told reporters that a deal was not going to get done unless he got involved. But he skipped talks in Turkey between Ukraine and Russia after Putin announced he would not be there.
After 90 minutes of those talks, Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each, but nothing else known. Trump, in his Saturday Truth Social post, said, as he did during talks in Abu Dhabi that largely focused on business deals, that 5,000 people are being killed weekly in the conflict.
He wrote: "THE SUBJECTS OF THE CALL WILL BE, STOPPING THE 'BLOODBATH' THAT IS KILLING, ON AVERAGE, MORE THAN 5000 RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS A WEEK, AND TRADE."Trump expressed hope that the talks would amount to a "PRODUCTIVE DAY" and that a ceasefire will be agreed to so this "VERY VIOLENT WAR" can end.
He added that the war "SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED."
The war started when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour, Ukraine, on February 24, 2022. Ukraine has been defending itself with Western support, but has recently been forced into a defensive position on several fronts, particularly after the US government under Trump significantly reduced its military aid to Kiev.
Trump and Putin have already spoken twice since Trump took office in January: once in mid-February and again in mid-March.
During the March conversation, Putin agreed to a US proposal to halt all attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure for 30 days, provided Kiev did the same. But he did not agree to a general ceasefire.
Earlier on Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio by telephone to discuss the results of the negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The conversation took place at the initiative of the United States, a statement from the ministry said.
It said Rubio had welcomed the news of the prisoner exchange, and the agreement by both sides to present their views on the necessary conditions for a ceasefire.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also celebrated the agreed prisoner exchange, saying "that is 1,000 happy families. Even for that alone, it was all worth it." "If we set aside all the Russian nonsense, pseudo-historical statements, provocations and so on, what we are left with is this: 1,000 of our people - we managed to agree on their return," he wrote on Facebook on Friday evening.
Source: Qatar Tribune