U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of ending the war in Ukraine, following constructive discussions between U.S. and Russian officials in Moscow.
“I’ll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of progress has been made over the weekend,” Trump informed reporters aboard Air Force One during a late return flight from Florida to the Washington area.
“We aim to see if we can bring this conflict to a close. It’s uncertain whether we will succeed, but I believe we have a strong chance,” Trump stated.
Trump is seeking Putin’s backing for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week, even as both sides continued to engage in significant aerial strikes over the weekend, with Russia advancing towards displacing Ukrainian forces from their established position in the western Russian region of Kursk.
When questioned about potential concessions in the ceasefire discussions, Trump replied, “We’ll be discussing land and power plants.” He added, “I think a lot of these topics have already been extensively discussed by both Ukraine and Russia. We are already in talks about dividing certain assets.”
Trump noted that considerable work had been accomplished on this matter over the weekend, which he spent at his residence in Florida. He arrived back at Joint Base Andrews, near Washington, in the early hours of Monday and subsequently returned to the White House.
Having altered U.S. policy to align more closely with Moscow, Trump has characterized Ukraine as more challenging to negotiate with than Russia. He previously had a contentious meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last month, which concluded with Zelenskiy leaving the White House prematurely.
However, Ukraine’s acceptance of the proposed ceasefire places pressure on Russia to comply with Trump’s requests and will test the U.S. president’s more favorable perspective of Putin, who initiated the invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
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