Washington, DC [US], March 17 : US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he will speak to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, CNN reported. He expressed hope that they would have "something to announce" on the US ceasefire proposal for the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One while returning to the White House after his weekend at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said, "We're doing pretty well, I think, with Russia. We'll see if we have something to announce, maybe by Tuesday. I'll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday."
"A lot of work's been done over the weekend, we want to see if we can bring that war to an end," Trump said. "Maybe we can, maybe we can't, but I think we have a very good chance."
He said, "I think we have a lot of it already discussed, very much, by both sides." Trump stated that the negotiations would include discussions around
He added that negotiations would include discussions around land and power plants and that "a lot of land is a lot different than it was before the war." He said that the discussions have already included discussions on "dividing up certain assets."
Last week, the Kremlin said that US negotiators would visit Russia for further talks. However, it did not disclose details regarding the participants, as reported by CNN. Trump's announcement regarding talks comes after he said last week that Ukraine had accepted a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire.
Notably, Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the US proposal to enact an "immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire," which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by Russia.
The US also agreed to immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine.
In response to Trump's announcement, Putin said that Russia agreed with the proposal in theory. However, he set tough conditions and demanded concessions from Ukraine. He accused the current Ukrainian government of being part of the "root cause" of the war.
On Friday, Putin announced that Russia is working to restore ties with the US after they were "practically reduced to zero, destroyed by the previous American administration." Referring to ties with the Trump administration, he said, "Overall, the situation is starting to move." He said, "Let's see what comes out of this."
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