Trump tells EU leaders Putin won't stop war because he believes Russia will win

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the G20 summit, AP archive photo

During a telephone conversation with European leaders, US President Donald Trump admitted that Vladimir Putin has no intention of stopping the war in Ukraine, as he believes that Russia is winning.

The Wall Street Journal reports this, citing sources.

According to the newspaper, this confirmed the fears of European leaders about Vladimir Putin, although for the first time they heard it directly from Donald Trump. This also contradicts his previous statements that Vladimir Putin is supposedly seeking peace.

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Despite this realisation, Donald Trump did not agree to increase sanctions against Russia. On 18 May — the day before his two-hour conversation with Vladimir Putin — he had a telephone conversation with European leaders in which he suggested that sanctions could be imposed if Russia refused to cease fire. However, the very next day he changed his position, rejecting sanctions and proposing that talks between Russia and Ukraine be held in the Vatican.

«This is not my war. We got involved in something we shouldn't have done», Donald Trump told reporters after his conversation with Vladimir Putin.

As a reminder, the phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a truce in Russia's war against Ukraine lasted more than two hours.

Russia-Ukraine talks in Turkey

On 11 May, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his desire to resume direct talks with Ukraine, which were suspended at the end of 2022. He also said that he planned to address Turkish President Recep Erdogan with a proposal to organise the talks.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal for direct talks, calling it a «good sign». However, Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that a ceasefire was needed first to really start a dialogue with Russia. He later stressed that he was looking forward to direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Turkey.

In addition, Turkish President Recep Erdogan accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer to hold talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul on 15 May.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump said that he had no information on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would attend the talks. At the same time, he did not rule out the possibility of his own participation in the event.

Late in the evening of 14 May, the Kremlin approved the official list of Russian representatives to participate in peace talks with Ukraine, but Russian President Vladimir Putin is not among the delegates.

On the day of the talks, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Ukrainian delegation had arrived in Ankara in full force and was ready for real solutions to achieve a just peace. The composition of the Russian delegation is still unknown and, according to the head of state, resembles «a prop level».

After the talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on the negotiation process with Russia, saying that Ukraine was ready to take all steps to end the war and urged Vladimir Putin to give the Russian delegation decision-making powers.

Later, it became known that Ukraine and Russia discussed a ceasefire and the exchange of prisoners of war in the format of «thousand for thousand» during the talks in Istanbul.

However, the Ukrainian and Russian sides agreed to meet again during the talks in Istanbul on 16 May.