Trump Calls Putin, Discusses Steps To End Ukraine's War

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump/DOCUMENTATION Mikhail Metzel/TASS, archive

JAKARTA - President of the United States (US) Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed steps to end Ukraine's war.

The White House said the phone calls of the two heads of state went well.

Trump hopes to convince Putin to accept the US-proposed 30-day ceasefire and move towards a permanent end to the three-year conflict.

A White House official said the two leaders had spoken on the phone since 10 am local time, Tuesday, March 18.

"The call went well, and is still in progress," wrote Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff of the White House.

Ukraine has previously agreed to a ceasefire in Europe's biggest conflict since the Second World War, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or injured, millions of people have fled and cities have been destroyed into rubble.

Putin said last week, in principle, he supported Washington's proposal for a ceasefire for 30 days but its troops would continue to fight until several important conditions were resolved.

Trump hopes to secure progress towards a long-term peace plan, which he says could include Kyiv's territorial concession and control over the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

"Many elements of the Final Agreement have been approved, but there is still a lot left," Trump said in a social media post on Monday.

"Every week there are 2,500 army deaths, from both sides, and this must end now," Trump wrote.

The Kremlin said before the phone call Trump and Putin would discuss resolving the conflict in Ukraine and normalizing relations between Russia and the United States, and that they would speak "as long as they deem necessary."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there had been "certain understanding" between the two leaders, based on phone calls they made on February 12 and subsequent high-level contacts between the two countries.

"However, there are also a large number of questions regarding the further normalization of our bilateral relations, and the resolution of the Ukraine problem. All of this must be discussed by the two presidents," Peskov told reporters.