Shortly after hanging up Monday with his favorite autocrat, Trump hopped on the line with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, and a few other world leaders to update them on negotiations.

Trump announced he will speak Monday by phone with Putin and Zelenskyy days after peace talks in Istanbul end with planned prisoner exchange

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Putin and Zelenskyy have never spoken face to face, and the last publicly known negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow took place in March 2022. Western media outlets,

Direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul last week failed to result in any meaningful progress toward an end to the war.

The Russian president abruptly canceled plans to meet face-to-face with Zelensky in Turkey last week. President Zelenskyy, left, and Vice President Vance greet each other as Secretary of State Rubio, center, looks on at St. Peter's Square Sunday. AP/Gregorio Borgia

Responding to reporters’ questions about Putin’s decision not to travel to Türkiye, Trump said he was not surprised. “I actually said why should he go if I'm not going? I wasn't going to go. I could have gone,

Having declared himself indispensable to the peace process, the US President runs the risk of a very public failure