President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed he had a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin as Washington hopes to build momentum toward a peace deal ending the yearslong war between Moscow and Ukraine. 

Ending the war, which some experts estimate has led to at least 2 million military casualties, has been a top priority of Trump’s second term, but has proved thus far to be persistently elusive. The bid appeared to gain some steam over the weekend, when the president deployed two of his top negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, overseas to talk about a possible deal with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.