Putin says Russia ready to work with Kyiv on possible peace deal memo

This combination of pictures created on May 19, 2025 shows President Donald Trump (L) on the phone on January 28, 2017 in Washington, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (R) on the phone Moscow on December 27, 2023. Agence France-Presse

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he had agreed with US leader Donald Trump that Moscow will propose a “memorandum” worked on with Ukraine outlining positions for a “possible” future peace deal.

Putin made the comment after speaking to Trump by phone in a call he said lasted more than two hours.

The Russian leader said Istanbul talks last week between Moscow and Kyiv put the world on the “right path” towards ending the conflict — which began with Moscow’s full-scale 2022 offensive.

READ: Trump gets talks pledge but no ceasefire from Putin

“Russia will propose and will be ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace agreement defining a range of positions,” Putin told Russian media after his call with Trump.

He said the document could outline “the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement and so on — including a possible ceasefire for a certain period of time if appropriate agreements are reached”.

Putin gave no more details on the “memorandum”.

READ: Trump says will speak to Putin to end Ukraine ‘bloodbath’

Ukraine and its Western allies have pressured Russia to agree to a ceasefire, which Moscow has so far resisted.

Putin thanked Trump for enabling the first direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow in more than three years.

“Contact between participants of the meeting and negotiations in Istanbul — this contact was restarted and it gives us the basis to think that on the whole we are on the right path,” Putin said.

He said both Moscow and Kyiv should show “maximum” effort to find “compromises that would suit all sides”.

Putin described his call with Trump as “very useful.”