President Donald Trump has urged his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to end the bloodbath and ongoing “war” in Ukraine. 

Mr Trump stated this on Saturday after a one-hour phone conversation with Mr Putin, on the tension in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war.  

According to the US President, during the discussion, Mr Putin gave assurances on the ongoing prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine. 

He noted that both leaders also discussed Israel’s blistering attacks aimed at decapitating Iran’s nuclear programme and Iran’s retaliatory strike. 

“We talked at length. Much less time was spent talking about Russia/Ukraine, but that will be for next week. He is doing the planned prisoner swaps — large numbers of prisoners are being exchanged, immediately, from both sides. The call lasted approximately 1 hour. He feels, as do I, this war in Israel-Iran should end, to which I explained, his war should also end,” he added on his Truth social platform. 

Last week, both leaders spoke at length and discussed Mr Putin’s plans to respond to Ukraine’s drone strike on Russia air bases. 

This development followed Mr Trump’s position to the European leaders that Mr Putin was not ready to end the war in Ukraine because he believed he was winning.