Trump writes in capital letters a post on Saturday that he and Putin will talk on the phone at 10 am on Monday morning.
"The subjects of the conversation will be to stop the bloodshed that kills on average more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers per week, and trade", writes Trump without presenting any evidence for his claim about the death toll.
Trump writes further that he will then talk to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyj and representatives of "various NATO countries".
"Hopefully, it will be a productive day, a ceasefire will come into force and this very violent war, a war that never should have happened, will be ended", concludes Trump his post.
The Kremlin's spokesperson Dmitrij Peskov says to the Russian state news agency Tass that the phone call between Trump and Putin "is being prepared".
Rubio and Lavrov in talks
Russia reports that the country's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has spoken by phone with his American counterpart Marco Rubio to discuss Friday's Russian-Ukrainian peace talks in Istanbul.
"Lavrov noted the USA's positive role in helping Kyiv to finally accept Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal to resume the Istanbul talks", it says in a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The talks in Istanbul were the first formal peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in three years, but did not lead to any major breakthroughs.
Prisoner exchange
Ukraine and several of its allies in Europe demanded last weekend an immediate and 30-day-long ceasefire in Ukraine to enable a process to stop the Russian war of aggression to move forward. The demand was said to have support also from mediating USA.
Vladimir Putin responded with a counteroffer, inviting them to Turkey for direct negotiations.
Putin, however, chose not to attend, and therefore Volodymyr Zelenskyj and Donald Trump chose to participate.
Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, but it is still unclear when the exchange will take place. It would then be the largest since the invasion began in 2022>
