Trump, Putin confer on urgent ceasefire in Ukraine

KABUL (Pajhwok): Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump have held a phone conversation lasting more than two hours.

Monday’s discussions on ending the Ukraine conflict were both substantive and candid, the Russian leader said, thanking Trump for supporting the resumption of direct talks between Moscow and Kiev.

Following the call, TASS quoted Putin as expressing his readiness to work with Ukraine on a memorandum on a future peace treaty. However, he gave no timeframe.

Trump believed Russia favoured a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, Putin said, stressing: “we should identify the most effective path to peace.”

The Russian president, underling the imperative of compromise acceptable to both sides, restated his stance that the root causes of the crisis be eradicated.

Putin hailed the positive role Trump and his administration played in bringing Ukraine back to the negotiating table. Although Trump, emphasised his interest in achieving an agreement as soon as possible, the timeframe for a ceasefire in Ukraine was not discussed.

The two leaders also conferred another prisoner swap between Russian and the US: “The presidents noted that another such exchange of nine for nine people is currently being worked out.”

On the state of bilateral relations, both spoke in favour of further normalisation of ties. Trump viewed Russia as one of America’s most important trade partners.

Putin positively assessed Oman-mediated talks between Washington and Tehran on the Iranian nuclear programme.

Speaking to journalists after the call, the US president recalled: “I said when are we going to end this, Vladimir? I said when are we going to end this bloodshed, this bloodbath?”

CNN quoted Trump as saying: “If I thought that President Putin did not want to get this over with, I wouldn’t even be talking about it. I’d just pull out. I think he’s had enough.”

Unlike Putin’s characterisation of the conversation, Trump put an optimistic and urgent spin on the contact and said the call “went very well” and that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to “immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire”.

PAN Monitor/mud