Trump hopes for a ceasefire from May 19 – will call Putin and Zelensky
US President Donald Trump hopes for a ceasefire on May 19 and has announced phone calls with dictator Vladimir Putin, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO partners. The American politician published a corresponding post on his social network Truth Social.
According to Trump, the call with Putin will take place on May 19 at 10:00 a.m. (if this is Washington time, then it will be 5:00 p.m. in Kyiv and Moscow).
"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," the US president wrote (in the original, all words are written in capital letters – in the traditional manner for the current head of state).
After speaking with Putin, Trump plans to speak with President Zelensky, after which both leaders will join in a conversation with the leaders of other NATO member states.
"Hopefully it will be a productive day, a ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war, a war that should have never happened, will end. God bless us all!!!" – concluded the President of the United States.
The day before, on May 16, Trump said he might call Putin to discuss ending the war, and also reiterated that they needed to meet.
- At a meeting in Istanbul on May 16, Ukraine and Russia failed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire, but agreed to a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange.
The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Umerov, noted that the topic of a ceasefire was discussed at the meeting, and the occupiers' top negotiator, Medinsky, stated that the parties agreed to develop appropriate proposals for a ceasefire and then continue negotiations.
- French President Macron said that the US leader "intends to have an exchange [of views] with the Russian side." According to him, this could happen "in the coming hours or days" to "find out what happened [in the negotiations] and try to move forward." The French president mentioned possible "telephone contacts" between Trump and dictator Putin firstly.
