ISTANBUL

US President Donald Trump, during a phone call with European leaders on Monday, said Russian President Vladimir Putin is not ready to end the war in Ukraine as he believes he is winning, according to three Wall Street Journal sources who were familiar with the conversation.

The newspaper said the "acknowledgment was what European leaders had long believed about Putin—but it was the first time they were hearing it from Trump" and ran "counter to what Trump has often said publicly, that he believes Putin genuinely wants peace."

The WSJ said that although Trump appears to have come around to the idea that Putin is not ready for peace, that has not led him to do “what the Europeans and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have been arguing he should do: double down on the fight against Russia.”

The call on Monday included Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The paper said Trump also had an earlier phone call with European leaders on Sunday, before his two-hour conversation with Putin on Monday.

According to the sources, Trump had indicated then that he could impose sanctions if Putin refused a cease-fire, but by Monday, “he had shifted again.”

“He wasn’t ready to do that. Instead, Trump said he wanted to proceed quickly with lower-level talks between Russia and Ukraine at the Vatican,” the newspaper wrote.

The WSJ said the "European diplomatic offensive" that had started some 10 days earlier ultimately did not succeed in getting Trump put pressure on Putin through additional sanctions, but the process "helped clarify for everyone, including Trump, where Putin stood: He is unwilling to halt the war at this stage."

The talks in the Vatican, according to the paper, are expected to start in mid June.