Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening, Trump was optimistic about the moves toward peace. “I’ll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work’s been done over the weekend,” he said, per the Guardian. “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.”
The conversation will come after a visit to Moscow last week by Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, who held direct negotiations with Putin.
Ukraine has already agreed to the Trump administration’s proposal for a 30-day pause in fighting during talks in Saudi Arabia, but only if Russia also commits to the ceasefire. While Putin has publicly claimed to support the idea, he has reportedly introduced conditions and delays that could complicate the process.
Asked about potential concessions during his upcoming call with Putin, Trump said, “We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants … we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia. We are already talking about that, dividing up certain assets.”
Diplomatic efforts continue at other levels. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke on Saturday to discuss the “next steps” in the ceasefire negotiations.
Trump said earlier this week that he had a "productive" meeting with the Russian leader: "We had very good and productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end — BUT, AT THIS VERY MOMENT, THOUSANDS OF UKRAINIAN TROOPS ARE COMPLETELY SURROUNDED BY THE RUSSIAN MILITARY, AND IN A VERY BAD AND VULNERABLE POSITION," Trump said on Truth Social.
