In talks expected Tuesday, Trump will attempt to win Putin’s unlikely support for a 30-day ceasefire agreed by the U.S. and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia last week.
President Donald Trump said late Sunday that negotiators in Washington and Moscow have begun discussing the division of assets between Russia and Ukraine in an effort to bring to an end the three-year-long war between the two countries.
The president told reporters aboard Air Force One that he plans to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and that the conversation would discuss “dividing up certain assets,” including land and power plants.
“I think we have a lot of it already discussed by both sides — Ukraine and Russia,” Trump said. “We want to see if we can bring that war to an end. Maybe we can, maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed the planned call between the two leaders on Tuesday during a press briefing Monday, but provided no further details. The talks expected to get underway Tuesday will see Trump attempt to win Putin’s support for a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the U.S. and Ukraine after their delegates met in Saudi Arabia last week, but which Putin said needed to meet crucial demands made by the Kremlin.
Putin and his officials have repeatedly indicated that they want to cement Russia’s land grabs during the three-year war and stop Kyiv from ever joining NATO.
Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko reiterated those goals Monday, telling Russian outlet Izvestia that Russia will seek “iron-clad security guarantees” to ensure Kyiv’s exclusion from NATO in any peace deal and Ukraine’s neutrality regarding the bloc.
Pressure has been mounting on Russia to cede to Trump’s demands after Ukraine accepted the ceasefire proposal last week, though Grushko’s comments Monday made no reference to the ceasefire proposal.
He also said that Russia would oppose any troops in Ukraine as part of post-conflict guarantees, including NATO troops, with Britain and France both saying in recent weeks that they are willing to send forces to monitor any ceasefire.“If [those soldiers] appear there, it means that they are deployed in the conflict zone with all the consequences for these contingents as parties to the conflict,” he added.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters in Brussels on Monday that the stipulations Russia has given show that Moscow “don’t really want peace, actually, because they are presenting as conditions all their ultimate goals that they want to achieve from the war,” according to Reuters.
The Ukrainian and Russian militaries continued to trade heavy aerial strikes over the weekend as Russian forces continued in their efforts to retake the western Russian region of Kursk, where Ukrainian forces had gained a strong foothold over the past 7 months.
The Ukrainian government sees the territory as a valuable bargaining chip in any future peace talks, but in recent weeks, it has been forced to retreat in parts of the region.
New images shown on Russian government channels over the weekend displayed an intensified military offensive by Russian forces, bolstered by support from North Korean troops and the Trump administration’s temporary suspension of military and intelligence assistance to Kyiv.
Even as Trump has attempted to play peacemaker, saying on Truth Social Friday that he had asked the Kremlin not to attack Ukrainian troops in Kursk, Putin has urged his troops on, appearing in military fatigues during a visit to the region last week.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said Monday that its forces destroyed 72 Ukrainian drones overnight and took control of the southern village of Stepove in southeastern Ukraine.In Moscow, a vocal minority of ultra-nationalists has urged Putin not to agree to a truce, calling it “a trap” and warning that the plan would give Ukraine time to regroup.
Last week, Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov called the ceasefire proposal “nothing else than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing more.”
That came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Putin of prolonging the war and ignoring U.S.-led efforts to broker a ceasefire.
“The buildup of Russian forces indicates that Moscow intends to keep ignoring diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Saturday.
“We are ready to provide our partners with all the real information on the situation at the front, in the Kursk region and along our border,” he added.