Donald Trump spoke with Russia's Vladimir Putin on Monday as the US president seeks a breakthrough to end the grinding conflict triggered by Moscow's 2022 war on Ukraine.
Trump is pinning his hopes on a fresh personal appeal to Putin to get the Kremlin leader to agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire with Kyiv. A White House official said on condition of anonymity that the call had started.
But the White House warned that Trump was "weary and frustrated" with the slow progress in resolving the conflict. The Kremlin said the call between the Russian and US leaders was "important."
Trump is also set to speak to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and Nato officials during the day as he scrambles to find a solution to the three-year-old war.
The 78-year-old Republican vowed during his US election campaign to halt the Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office, but his diplomatic efforts have so far yielded little progress.
Vice-President J D Vance reiterated that Trump was losing patience.
"There's a bit of an impasse here, and I think the president's going to say to President Putin, look, are you serious?" Vance told reporters as he left Rome, where he met both Pope Leo XIV and Zelensky. — AFP
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