Trump urges Putin to accept ceasefire deal in call on Ukraine war

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Ukraine war on Tuesday in a phone call which Washington hoped would convince Moscow to accept a 30-day ceasefire and move towards a permanent peace deal.

Both sides said the talks, which began at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT), had later concluded.

White House chief of staff Dan Scavino had said earlier that the call had been “going well”. Kirill Dmitriev, a Putin envoy, said that under the leadership of Trump and Putin the world had become a much safer place.

Ukraine has already agreed to the US -proposed ceasefire in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two, in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or wounded, millions have been displaced and towns have been reduced to rubble.

Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, said last week he supported in principle Washington’s proposal for a truce but that his forces would fight on until several crucial conditions were worked out.

Trump hopes also to secure progress towards a longer-term peace plan, which he has hinted could include territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said before the call that Trump and Putin would discuss settling the conflict in Ukraine and normalising relations between Russia and the United States, and that they would speak “for as long as they deem necessary.”