Trump Plans Direct Call With Putin to Press for Ceasefire by New Year

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans a direct conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming days to persuade him to end the war in Ukraine before the new year, according to journalist Pavel Pavluchenko.

Pavluchenko reports that Trump intends to warn the Kremlin that a refusal to accept a ceasefire and enter negotiations would trigger two major responses: the United States would provide Ukraine with necessary security guarantees and back the imposition of large-scale sanctions against Russia under legislation sponsored by Senator Lindsey Graham.

The Graham bill, formally known as the Sanctioning Russia Act, proposes severe economic penalties targeting Russia's energy, financial, and defense sectors if Moscow does not engage in good-faith peace talks.

At the same time, Trump is counting on the prospect of renewed economic cooperation between Washington and Moscow to serve as an additional incentive for Putin to agree to a settlement. The president-elect has previously suggested that a future U.S.-Russia trade relationship could benefit both nations once the conflict ends.

Previous Trump-linked envoys have visited Moscow without achieving progress, and the Kremlin has shown deep skepticism toward such channels. Those earlier efforts failed to establish a credible negotiating path, leaving Moscow's expectations for any new outreach extremely low.

The outreach would mark Trump's first direct diplomatic engagement with Putin since winning the November election and signals his intention to prioritize a negotiated end to the nearly three-year war. Neither the Trump transition team nor the Kremlin has officially confirmed the planned call.