WASHINGTON, USA — U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation on Monday, May 19, 2025, marking their third officially confirmed call this year as efforts intensify behind the scenes to bring an end to the war in Ukraine
The call, which U.S. and Russian officials confirmed took place over encrypted lines and with translators present, is the latest in a series of engagements between the two leaders aimed at laying groundwork for a potential ceasefire and broader peace settlement.
The Kremlin and Trump’s office did not release full transcripts, but both sides described the exchange as “substantive.”
Their prior conversations this year occurred on February 12 and March 18.
During the March call — which lasted approximately two hours — Putin agreed to a temporary halt in strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, though he stopped short of endorsing the 30-day ceasefire proposed by Trump.
That moratorium was later marred by mutual accusations of violations from both Kyiv and Moscow.
The Kremlin has hinted at additional private communications between the two leaders, though only three have been publicly acknowledged in 2025.
If confirmed, these contacts would continue a pattern of discreet engagement that began shortly after Trump left office in 2021.
Veteran journalist Bob Woodward reported in his 2024 book War that Trump had up to seven post-presidency conversations with Putin — a claim the Kremlin denies and Trump has neither confirmed nor denied outright.
In recent months, Trump has ramped up rhetoric positioning himself as a potential peacemaker in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, repeatedly referring to the war as a “bloodbath” and casting it as a proxy war provoked by NATO expansion.
“I want to be remembered as the one who stopped this madness,” Trump said in March.
He has ruled out Ukrainian membership in NATO and has argued that past U.S. support for the alliance’s enlargement helped trigger the war — a view that starkly contrasts with the stance of current Western leaders.
Trump has also floated punitive economic measures against Moscow if peace efforts stall.
In late March, he threatened to impose secondary tariffs of up to 50 percent on countries buying Russian oil, should he conclude that Putin is obstructing negotiations.
European officials remain deeply sceptical. Diplomats in Berlin, Paris and Brussels have privately voiced concerns that a Trump-led peace plan could amount to a “punitive deal” for Ukraine — one that would leave the country without critical security guarantees and potentially concede up to 20 percent of its territory to Russia.
According to leaked outlines of a draft peace plan attributed to the Trump camp, the U.S. would recognise Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and accept Russian control over significant portions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — four regions that Russia has partially occupied since launching a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Putin has repeatedly signalled interest in negotiations but has also set firm conditions, including Ukraine’s renunciation of NATO ambitions and full withdrawal from territories Russia claims as its own.
In June 2024, he reaffirmed these demands, saying that no ceasefire could take effect without clarity on such “crucial conditions.”
In his latest push, Putin revived mention of a 2022 draft agreement negotiated in the early weeks of the invasion, which envisioned a neutral, non-aligned Ukraine in exchange for Russian troop withdrawals.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who last spoke with Trump in early February, has publicly ruled out any agreement that involves territorial concessions or compromises on sovereignty.
His administration maintains that any deal must be rooted in the principles of international law, territorial integrity, and self-determination.
While direct peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv remain elusive, Trump and Putin’s continued communications have added urgency to diplomatic discussions around the war’s possible endgame — and drawn increased scrutiny as 2026’s U.S. presidential election looms.
