Trump speaks on phone with Putin ahead of Zelensky meeting

President Donald Trump on Sunday said he spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin ahead of a scheduled meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Bloomberg reports.

Trump will meet face-to-face with Zelensky Sunday afternoon in Florida. Sunday morning, according to Trump, he had a “good and very productive” phone call with the Russian leader. “Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the Trump-Putin call, according to the Interfax news service,” Bloomberg reports.

“Trump has ramped up pressure on Ukraine to make concessions and dangled promises of economic cooperation at Russia,” according to Bloomberg. “While Zelensky has repeatedly declared his readiness for a ceasefire to allow space for peace negotiations, Putin has refused Trump’s calls for a truce without first having reached agreement on a deal.”

NewsNation editor Kevin Bohn reports “after Trump and Zelensky finish their one on one meeting, both leaders will call European leaders to brief them.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday called Europe “the main obstacle to peace," Bloomberg reports. Meanwhile, "Russia spent the weekend bombarding Ukraine, pounding Kyiv with hundreds of drones and missiles."