President Donald Trump announced on Monday that Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations—possibly at the Vatican—”to bring and end to the war.”

Trump made the announcement on Truth Social after a high-stakes phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that lasted over two hours.

The president said he believed the call went “very well,” while Putin told reporters it “was a very informative and quite a frank conversation.”

“Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War,” Trump stated.

The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of. The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later. Russia wants to do largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic “bloodbath” is over, and I agree. There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is UNLIMITED. Likewise, Ukraine can be a great beneficiary on Trade, in the process of rebuilding its Country. Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately. I have so informed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, President Emmanuel Macron, of France, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, of Italy, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, of Germany, and President Alexander Stubb, of Finland, during a call with me, immediately after the call with President Putin. The Vatican, as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations. Let the process begin!

Earlier Monday, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with newly-installed Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican.

Vance,  who converted to Catholicism in 2019, has reportedly invited the pontiff to the White House.

“As you can probably imagine, people in the United States are extremely excited about you,” Vance told the pope as they exchanged gifts.

“There was an exchange of views on some current international issues, calling for respect for humanitarian law and international law in areas of conflict and for a negotiated solution between the parties involved,” the Vatican said in a statement after their meeting.

Putin told reporters that he thanked Trump “for US support in resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on a possible peace agreement.”

The Russian president added: “The US president voiced his position on a ceasefire. For my part, I noted that Russia, too, favours a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. We simply must determine the most effective ways of moving towards peace.”

Putin is quoted by Russian state media Tass as saying “Russia will offer and is ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum on a possible future peace agreement.”

Tass reported that this would also entail “a possible ceasefire for a certain period of time, should relevant agreements be reached.”

Putin and Trump discussed a potential nine-for-nine prisoner swap between the United States and Russia in their call today, Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, told Russian news agencies. This is the first we’ve heard of such a large swap being discussed. It would come after two one-for-one prisoner exchanges between the United State and Russia since Trump returned to office.

Ushakov took pains to emphasize the comity of the call, according to Tass, a Russian state news agency. Ushakov said that Putin began the call by congratulating Trump on the recent birth of his 11th grandchild, that the presidents addressed each other by their first names and that when the call reached its end, “neither of them, wanted to end the conversation — did not want, so to speak, to hang up.”

Trump and Putin previously spoke by phone on February 12, in what Trump described as a “highly productive” conversation.

Trump lost patience with the Russian leader a month later when the negotiations faltered, saying he was “very angry” and “pissed off” with Putin. The president’s tumultuous meeting with Zelensky was cut short in February after Trump warned the Ukraine president that he “doesn’t have any cards to play” and risked starting “World War III” by resisting a peace deal with Russia.