According to The Wall Street Journal, US president Donald Trump admitted to European leaders that Russian president Vladimir Putin is not ready to end the war in Ukraine. Trump reportedly did so during a telephone call on Monday, the newspaper writes, citing three people who are aware of the conversation.
For some time, European leaders have suspected that Vladimir Putin was unwilling to end the war in Ukraine. It is believed that Putin is stalling negotiations for a truce because he feels Russia is winning the war and wants to capture more Ukrainian territory first.
According to The Wall Street Journal, EU leaders received confirmation of this from US president Donald Trump this week. Following a two-hour telephone conversation with Putin on Monday, Trump reportedly informed them that the Russian president was in no hurry to end the war in Ukraine.
This contradicts Trump’s public statements, in which he has repeatedly claimed that Putin genuinely wants peace. The White House declined to comment on the report, citing Trump’s Truth Social post about his conversation with Putin. “The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent,” he wrote.
No new US sanctions
Having told EU leaders on Sunday that the US might impose sanctions if Putin refused a ceasefire, Trump now seems unwilling to do so. Instead, the US president said he wanted to quickly move forward with lower-level talks between Russia and Ukraine at the Vatican.
Trump’s conversation on Monday included Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
On Thursday, von der Leyen’s spokeswoman confirmed that the conversation with Trump revealed that “president Putin reiterated his well-known position” that he is winning the war and does not want peace. “We cannot say he is not consistent.”
Last week, Von der Leyen announced that the EU is working on an 18th sanctions package against Russia. Among other things, the EU wants to prevent the recommissioning of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, impose financial sanctions and expand the blacklist of ships in Russia’s shadow fleet.
