President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and President Trump talked on the phone late on Thursday, after which Mr. Trump posted on social media that the United States would impose sanctions on Russia if it did not accept an extended cease-fire in its war with Ukraine.
During talks in Saudi Arabia in March, the Trump administration had proposed a 30-day truce to allow for peace negotiations. Ukraine accepted the idea but Russia has pushed instead for negotiating terms for a settlement before accepting a cease-fire.
After a meeting in Vatican City with Mr. Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral last month. Mr. Trump threatened Russia with sanctions if it drew out of the negotiations. But his social media post after his call with Mr. Zelensky was his clearest statement yet that he was linking additional U.S. sanctions on Russia to its acceptance of a 30-day truce for negotiations.
“If the ceasefire is not respected, the U.S. and its partners will impose further sanctions,” Mr. Trump wrote in the post, made on Truth Social, his social networking site.
The United States, Mr. Trump wrote, “calls for, ideally, a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.”.
Mr. Zelensky’s office published a readout of the call with Mr. Trump saying the two leaders had congratulated one another on the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. It also said that on the call, “President Trump confirmed that he wants to see this war ended and is ready to help.”
Mr. Trump’s call with Mr. Zelensky and his post marked another swivel by the administration closer to Ukraine’s positions in the talks, after two months of concessions to Russia including broadening diplomatic relations and voting against a U.N. resolution condemning Moscow for the war.
The call marked May 8, commemorated in both Ukraine and the United States as the day World War II ended in Europe. Russia celebrates the holiday on May 9.
Mr. Zelensky quickly welcomed Mr. Trump’s endorsement of a 30-day cease-fire, posting on X early Wednesday that, “Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire starting right now, from this very moment.”
Ukraine had rejected a Russian offer of a three-day truce around the Victory Day holiday and parade in Moscow on Friday, which was attended by two dozen world leaders, including President Xi Jinping of China. Mr. Zelensky said that the Russian proposal allowed too little time to negotiate a peace agreement and that it was offered only to put guests of the Moscow parade at ease.
In the days before the parade, both Russia and Ukraine launched volleys of exploding drones toward the countries’ capitals, disrupting flights near Moscow and killing two people and starting fires in Kyiv.
Those attacks halted after the start of Russia’s proposed short-term truce but fighting along the front line in eastern Ukraine carried on as before. Ukraine’s military on Friday morning reported 193 combat engagements along the about 700-mile front over the past 24 hours.
In a move sure to enrage Ukrainians, Russian authorities on Friday unveiled a bust of Stalin, adorned with red carnations, as part of Victory Day celebrations in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol. A plaque by the bust commemorated Stalin’s leadership in World War II. Stalin is a reviled figure in Ukraine for the 1930s famine known as the Holodomor that killed at least three million people, and in Ukraine and multiple other countries is considered a genocide.
