Today's Edition
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
President Donald Trump said he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday about ending the Ukraine war.
"We want to see if we can bring that war to an end," the US president told reporters on Air Force One during a flight back to the Washington area from Florida. "Maybe we can, maybe we can't, but I think we have a very good chance.
"I'll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work's been done over the weekend."
Trump is trying to win Putin's support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week.
Asked about what concessions were being considered in ceasefire negotiations, Trump said: "We'll be talking about land. We'll be talking about power plants...We're already talking about that, dividing up certain assets."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Monday that Putin would speak with Trump by phone but declined to comment on Trump's remarks about land and power plants.
The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin had sent Trump a message about his ceasefire plan via US envoy Steve Witkoff, who held talks in Moscow, expressing "cautious optimism" that a deal could be reached to end the three-year conflict.
In separate appearances on Sunday TV shows in the United States, Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Trump's National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, emphasized that there were still challenges to be worked out before Russia agrees to a ceasefire, much less a final peaceful resolution to the war.
'IRONCLAD' GUARANTEES
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that he saw a good chance to end the Russian war after Kyiv accepted the US proposal for a 30-day interim ceasefire.
Zelensky has not responded publicly yet to Waltz's remarks.
Russia will seek "ironclad" guarantees in any peace deal that NATO nations exclude Kyiv from membership and that Ukraine will remain neutral, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Russian media outlet Izvestia in remarks published on Monday that made no reference to the ceasefire proposal.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday that Western allies other than the US were stepping up preparations to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia, with defence chiefs set to firm up "robust plans" next week.
