Bennett, Putin hold hour-and-a-half-long phone call to discuss ceasefire efforts

By Tal Schneider

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14 March 2022, 7:50 pm

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Tal Schneider is a Political Correspondent at The Times of Israel

Right: Prime Minister Naftali Bennett leads a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on October 5, 2021. (Alex Kolomoisky/ Pool) Left: Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a session of the 17th Russia-Kazakhstan Interregional Cooperation Forum via video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, September 30, 2021. (Evgeniy Paulin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett left this evening’s cabinet meeting on the government’s refugee policy in order to take a phone call from Russian President Vladimir Putin, a diplomatic official tells reporters.

The call lasted roughly an hour and a half, with the sides discussing efforts to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine, as well as efforts to allow access to Israeli humanitarian aid, the official says.

The official says that Putin complained to Bennett about the “barbaric” acts of Ukrainian soldiers in the separatist-held Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine where Russia claims 20 civilians were killed. Those reports have not been confirmed.