Picture shows burned vehicles parked near a civilian building following drone attacks on the Kyiv region on Sunday — AFP NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters): US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday to discuss stopping the war in Ukraine, days after the first face-to-face talks in three years between Russia and Ukraine took place in Istanbul.
Trump had offered to travel to Turkey for the talks while in the Gulf last week if Putin would also attend, but Putin declined to take him up on the offer.
The president has been pressuring Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to a ceasefire in the three-year-old war.
Trump said in a Truth Social post that his call with Putin will be on Monday at 10am Eastern (1400 GMT).
"THE SUBJECTS OF THE CALL WILL BE, STOPPING THE 'BLOODBATH' THAT IS KILLING, ON AVERAGE, MORE THAN 5000 RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS A WEEK, AND TRADE," he said.
Trump said he would speak with Zelenskiy and various members of NATO afterwards.
"Hopefully it will be a productive day, a ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war, a war that should have never happened, will end," he wrote.
Russia has shown little inclination to make concessions in the Ukraine conflict.
Russian negotiators at the Istanbul peace talks on Friday demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of all Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire, a senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks told Reuters.
Another report adds: Russian negotiators at peace talks in Istanbul demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of all the Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire, a senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks told Reuters.
The Kremlin declined to comment on the terms that Russia had put forward at Friday's meeting in Turkey - the first time the warring sides had held face-to-face talks since March 2022, weeks after Russia's full-scale invasion.
The talks lasted only one hour and 40 minutes, and yielded an agreement to trade 1,000 prisoners of war on each side. The two countries have not specified when that would happen.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Saturday for stronger sanctions on Moscow after a Russian drone killed nine bus passengers in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine. "This was a deliberate killing of civilians," he said.
"Pressure must be exerted on Russia to stop the killings. Without tougher sanctions, without stronger pressure, Russia will not seek real diplomacy."
Russia, which denies targeting civilians, said it struck a military target in Sumy. Its defence ministry said Russian troops had captured another settlement in eastern Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and welcomed the "positive role" of the United States in helping to secure a resumption of talks between Russia and Ukraine.
"(Lavrov) confirmed Moscow's readiness to continue joint work with American colleagues in this context," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
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