This combination photo shows President Donald Trump in a business roundtable, May 16, 2025, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a signing ceremony at the Kremlin in Moscow, May 10, 2025. (AP Photo)2025-05-19T04:01:42Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump is hoping separate phone calls Monday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will make progress toward a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.Trump expressed his hopes for a productive day Monday and a ceasefire in a social media post over the weekend. His effort will also include calls to NATO leaders. Trump has struggled to end a war that began with Russias invasion in February 2022, and that makes these conversations a serious test of his reputation as a dealmaker after having claimed he would quickly settle the conflict once he was back in the White House, if not even before he took office.The Republican president is banking on the idea that his force of personality and personal history with Putin will be enough to break any impasse over a pause in the fighting. His sensibilities are that hes got to get on the phone with President Putin, and that is going to clear up some of the logjam and get us to the place that we need to get to, said Trumps envoy, Steve Witkoff. I think its going to be a very successful call. Still, there are fears that Trump has an affinity for Putin that could put Ukraine at a disadvantage with any agreements engineered by the U.S. government. Bridget Brink said she resigned last month as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine because the policy since the beginning of the administration was to put pressure on the victim Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia. Brink said the sign that she needed to depart was an Oval Office meeting in February where Trump and his team openly berated Zelenskyy for not being sufficiently deferential to them.I believe that peace at any price is not peace at all, Brink said. Its appeasement and as we know from history, appeasement only leads to more war.Trumps frustration about the war had been building before his post Saturday on Truth Social about the coming calls, which he said would begin first with Putin at 10 a.m. Monday. Trump said his discussion with Putin would focus on stopping the bloodbath of the war. It also will cover trade, a sign that Trump might be seeking to use financial incentives to broker some kind of agreement after Russias invasion led to severe sanctions by the United States and its allies that have steadily eroded Moscows ability to grow.Trumps hope, according to the post, is that a war that should have never happened will end.His treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press that Trump had made it clear that a failure by Putin to negotiate in good faith could lead to additional sanctions against Russia. Bessent suggested the sanctions that began during the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden were inadequate because they did not stop Russias oil revenues, due to concerns that doing so would increase U.S. prices. The United States sought to cap Russias oil revenues while preserving the countrys petroleum exports to limit the damage from the inflation that the war produced. Putin recently rejected an offer by Zelenskyy to meet in-person in Turkey as an alternative to a 30-day ceasefire urged by Ukraine and its Western allies, including Washington.Those talks ended on Friday after less than two hours, without a ceasefire in place. Still, both countries committed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, with Ukraines intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, saying on Ukrainian television Saturday that the exchanges could happen as early as this week.While wrapping up his four-day trip to the Middle East, Trump said on Friday that Putin had not gone to Turkey because Trump himself wasnt there.He and I will meet, and I think well solve it or maybe not, Trump told reporters after boarding Air Force One. At least well know. And if we dont solve it, itll be very interesting.Zelenskyy met with Trumps vice president, JD Vance, and top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Rome on Sunday, as well as European leaders, intensifying his efforts before the Monday calls. The Ukrainian president said on the social media site X that during his talks with the American officials, they discussed the negotiations in Turkey and that the Russians sent a low level delegation of non-decision-makers. He also said he stressed that Ukraine is engaged in real diplomacy to have a ceasefire. We have also touched upon the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defense cooperation, battlefield situation and upcoming prisoners exchange, Zelenskyy said. Pressure is needed against Russia until they are eager to stop the war.The push came as the Kremlin launched its largest drone barrage against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, firing a total of 273 exploding drones and decoys, Ukraines air force said Sunday. The attacks targeted the countrys Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.Witkoff spoke Sunday on ABCs This Week and Brink appeared on CBS Face the Nation. JOSH BOAK Boak covers the White House and economic policy for The Associated Press. He joined the AP in 2013. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site