President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are discussing the former’s proposal for an unconditional, immediate cease-fire in the war between Russia and Ukraine, the White House said Tuesday.
White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino tweeted that the call began at 10 a.m. ET and was “going well.”
Trump and his national security team have been trying to get Putin to agree to the same 30-day deal Kyiv agreed to sign last week following talks in Saudi Arabia.
Trump’s proposal was designed to reveal which party to the war was ready to talk peace, administration officials have said. It involved no terms other than a commitment to diplomatic talks, a pause on all hostilities, the exchange of prisoners of war and the return of Ukrainian children that Russians have kidnapped.
Since the start of the Trump administration, the president has been pushing for Russia and Ukraine to first “stop the killing,” then hold negotiations under a cease-fire, according to the special envoy to Ukraine, Gen. Keith Kellogg.
Putin could have signed the cease-fire on Friday, when Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff went to Moscow to present him with the agreement that Ukraine had inked two days before.
Putin sent the envoy home to Washington with little more than a demand that Trump call him to discuss one-on-one.
