No Ceasefire Deal After Trump's 2-Hour Call With Putin

There was no announcement of a ceasefire after President Trump's two-hour phone call with Vladimir Putin on Monday, but Trump said he believes it "went very well." In a Truth Social post, Trump said, "Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War." He said the Vatican "has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations." "The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent," Trump said. "If it wasn't, I would say so now, rather than later."

• Putin's take on the call. The New York Times reports that Trump's version of the call was "far more positive" than that offered by Putin, who said the call had been "very meaningful and quite frank" but did not reveal any breakthroughs. Putin said Russia was willing to work toward a ceasefire, but he repeated his longstanding demand that any deal to end the war would have to "remove the root causes of this crisis."

• Trump focuses on trade. "Russia wants to do largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic 'bloodbath' is over, and I agree," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is UNLIMITED. Likewise, Ukraine can be a great beneficiary on Trade, in the process of rebuilding its Country."
• Zelensky. Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that in a quick call with Volodymyr Zelensky before the Putin call, Trump asked the Ukrainian leader what he should talk to Putin about. Zelensky told Trump he should push for a 30-day ceasefire and agree to a meeting with Putin that Zelensky could attend, the sources say. Trump was expected to have a longer call with Zelensky later in the day.
• Vance: US "more than open to walking away." "We realize there's a bit of an impasse here," Vice President JD Vance told reporters before Trump's call with Putin. "The president's going to say to President Putin: 'Look, are you serious? Are you real about this?'" He added that if Russia doesn't appear interested in a peace deal, "we're more than open to walking away." "It takes two to tango," he said, per the AP. "If Russia is not willing to do that, then we're eventually just going to have to say, this is not our war. It's Joe Biden's war, it's Vladimir Putin's war."

(More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)