US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Russia and Ukraine "will immediately start negotiations" toward a ceasefire and an end to their three-year-old war, speaking after he held a call with Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
"Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately," Trump said in a Truth Social post following his call with Putin, which lasted two hours.
After the call, Putin said efforts to end the war were "generally on the right track" and that Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a potential peace deal.
"We have agreed with the president of the United States that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord," Putin told reporters near the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
In his social media post, Trump said the Vatican, "as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations. Let the process begin!" Putin and Trump spoke after direct talks last week in Turkey between Moscow and Kyiv, the first since 2022 in the early months of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Talks last week failed to agree on a truce. US Vice President JD Vance earlier repeated a warning that Washington could walk away from the peace process.
Putin said the memorandum would define "a number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement".
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