Investing.com - U.S. President Donald Trump is due to speak with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday, with the leaders set to discuss the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump said "the subjects of the call will be stopping the ’bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week".
Trump, who has said that he would like to be remembered for being a peacemaker, said the call would take place at 10:00 ET (14:00 GMT). The Kremlin, meanwhile, has said that it is preparing for the call.
"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," Trump added.
Separate discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other members of the Nato alliance would also take place, Trump said.
On Sunday, Russia launched its biggest drone attack on Ukraine since the outbreak of the fighting in 2022, while Ukraine’s intelligence service said that it believed Moscow had intended to fire an intercontinental ballistic missile, Reuters has reported. Russia has not confirmed the report.
Elsewhere, leaders from the U.S., Germany, Italy and France discussed the conflict with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday, Downing Street said.
The talks came after delegates from Russia and Ukraine met in Turkey last week for their first face-to-face negotiations since March 2022. The two sides promised a swap of prisoners of war, but an agreement on a potential ceasefire remained elusive.
Trump has repeatedly called for an end to the fighting, although Putin has remained firm in his conditions for peace, which include Kyiv agreeing not to join Nato and removing troops in areas controlled by Russian forces -- which now control around a fifth of Ukraine.
Speaking to Fox News, Trump said he could make a "deal" with Putin on the conflict, but flagged that he would impose further sanctions on Russia if "we’re not going to make a deal".
(Reuters contributed reporting.)