Trump told several European leaders that Putin does not intend to stop the war because he is convinced he is winning

The Wall Street Journal revealed on Wednesday that the U.S. president Donald Trump told European leaders during a phone call Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not ready to end his invasion of Ukraine because he is convinced he is winning the war. The acknowledgment by the Republican leader coincides with what several rulers of Europe have been commenting on the ruler of Russia during the last months, being the first time they have heard it from the American president.

As revealed by the newspaper, Monday's call involved Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The meeting between these leaders was the culmination of a diplomatic offensive by Europe that had begun two weeks earlier, with the aim of Trump putting even more pressure on Putin. The Journalnoted that, even though this effort failed to get the U.S. president to agree toimpose more sanctions against Russia, European leaders left the conversation satisfied, noting several positive aspects to the conversation, such as Trump's conviction regarding Putin'sPutin's reluctance to stop the invasion in the short termand the certainty that Trump will not stop his arms exports to Ukraine as long as Ukraine or Europe funds them.

Meeting at the Vatican

The media outlet explained in its article that for European leaders it was a surprise that Trump expressed his refusal to sanction Russia, since a day before the telephone meeting they had had another call in which the Republican leader would have accepted the idea of imposing new sanctions against Putin if he refused a cease-fire in the short term. In their conversation on Monday, Trump reportedly changed his position on this point and told the European leaders that he was not ready to take this step and that his intention was to proceed quickly with low-level talks between the Ukrainian and Russian governments at the Vatican.

In his Sunday call, which included British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the U.S. president signaled that he would send White House special envoy Keith Kellogg and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the Vatican talks. The newspaper also revealed that while some of the European leaders insisted that the outcome of the Vatican talks should be an unconditional ceasefire, Trump explained that he did not like the word "unconditional" and even claimed that he had never used it before on the issue of the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Finally, the Journalrevealed that the meetings in the Vatican would take place in mid-June.