- US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have spoken on the phone for more than two hours amid efforts to reach a ceasefire deal in the war in Ukraine.
- Russian state media quote Putin as saying his conversation with Trump was “frank and meaningful”.
- After speaking to Putin, Trump is due to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO leaders.
- The diplomatic efforts come as Ukraine says Russia launched its largest drone barrage since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022, firing a total of 273 exploding drones and decoys at several Ukrainian regions.
White House also confirms long Trump-Putin call over
A quick reminder that the US president is now due to speak to Zelenskyy.
Trump has also said he will be holding talks with NATO leaders.
Putin says ready for memorandum that includes ceasefire
We can now bring you more from Putin on his call with Trump.
In remarks carried by Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti, Putin said he supports stopping the fighting, but that there is a need to “develop the most effective paths towards peace”.
The Russian president also said his country is ready to come up with a memorandum with Ukraine that establishes a ceasefire, stressing the need for compromises that are “acceptable to all sides”.
Trump-Putin call over, lasted over two hours: Russian state media
Putin has now reacted to his phone conversation with Trump, which he said lasted over two hours.
The Russian president described the talk as “substantive, candid and very useful,” according to Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
He also “expressed gratitude to Trump for the US role in resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,” said the agency.
We’ll bring you more of Putin’s remarks shortly.
Spain’s PM denounces ‘double standards’ in international treatment of Russia and Israel
Pedro Sanchez has called for Israel to face sanctions in international competitions over its war in Gaza – just as Russia did following its invasion of Ukraine.
“We cannot allow double standards, not even in culture,” the Spanish prime minister, a long-time critic of Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territories, told a conference in Madrid.
“I believe that no one was shocked three years ago when Russia was asked to withdraw from international competitions after it invaded Ukraine and not participate, for example, at Eurovision. Therefore, Israel should not do so either,” Sanchez said.
For all the latest updates on Israel’s war on Gaza, follow our live coverage here.
‘Russia disposed to have peace, but on its terms’
While Trump and Putin are unlikely to reach a serious breakthrough in their discussion today, they could agree on a shared blueprint for how to end the war, says Dmitry Babich, deputy foreign editor of Russia’s Komsoloskaya Pravda newspaper.
“Hopefully this will be the beginning of a breakthrough,” he told Al Jazeera from Moscow. “Hopefully they will agree on some formula, some blueprint for the process that will take some time but that will end up in compromise.”
Asked whether Russia could be swayed to drop its demands for Ukraine to withdraw troops from the embattled Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, Babich said there is room for negotiation.
“I think everything is negotiable except Crimea and the cities,” he said, adding that Russia “will certainly not give up” the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk.
“But when people say Russia is not disposed to have peace, this is simply not true,” Babich said. “Russia is disposed to have peace, but on its terms, on terms acceptable to the Russian population.”
Zelenskyy to push for ceasefire, renewed pressure on Moscow during his call with Trump
There are expectations Zelenskyy will ask for two things during his call with Trump.
First of all, an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.
Secondly, for pressure on Putin. We’re talking sanctions, and anything else that can get him to the negotiating table.
Zelenskyy has been making these points consistently over the past two weeks. He says that Putin has shown that he’s not serious about holding these talks, and that he knows that because Putin sent a low-level delegation to the talks in Istanbul – people who Zelenskyy says didn’t have the power to make any real decisions.
And Putin made demands that would have granted Russia essentially everything it wanted as a precondition just to getting a ceasefire.
As all this is happening, and Zelenskyy is pressing for diplomacy, Russia has been pressing militarily. It has been striking in the Donetsk region in the east, and here in Kyiv and elsewhere over the weekend it launched a historic series of drone attacks.
Putin appears to be maximising military pressure ahead of any kind of talks, and not agreeing to a ceasefire or serious negotiations without preconditions at all.