Washington: President Donald Trump said on Monday that Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin ceasefire negotiations after what he described as an “excellent” call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that lasted more than two hours.

Trump also spoke with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in hopes of making progress toward a ceasefire.

“The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of,” Trump said in a social media post. Trump said the call was “excellent,” adding, “If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later.” The conversations came after the White House said the US leader has grown “frustrated” with both leaders over the continuing war in Ukraine.

After the call, Putin said Russia was ready to continue discussing an end to the fighting, but he indicated there was no major breakthrough in what he termed a “very informative and very frank” conversation with Trump. Putin said the warring countries should “find compromises that would suit all parties.” Moscow, he said, will “propose and is ready to work with” Ukraine on a “memorandum” outlining the framework for “a possible future peace treaty.” “At the same time, I would like to note that, in general, Russia’s position is clear. The main thing for us is to eliminate the root causes of this crisis,” the Russian president said.

Trump has struggled to end a war that began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022. That makes these conversations a serious test of his reputation as a deal maker after having claimed he would quickly settle........

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