US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Power One whereas flying to Washington, DC, from Florida, on March 16, 2025, above Virginia.
Brendan Smialowski | Afp | Getty Photographs
U.S. President Donald Trump stated he plans to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and focus on ending the battle in Ukraine, after optimistic talks between U.S. and Russian officers in Moscow.
“We wish to see if we will deliver that battle to an finish,” Trump instructed reporters on Air Power One throughout a late flight again to the Washington space from Florida. “Possibly we will, possibly we will not, however I believe now we have an excellent likelihood.
“I will be talking to President Putin on Tuesday. A variety of work’s been performed over the weekend.”
Trump is attempting to win Putin’s help for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted final week, as either side continued buying and selling heavy aerial strikes via the weekend and Russia moved nearer to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold within the western Russian area of Kursk.
There was no instant response from the Kremlin to a request for remark from Reuters.
The Kremlin stated on Friday that Putin had despatched Trump a message about his ceasefire plan through U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, who held talks in Moscow, expressing “cautious optimism” {that a} deal might be reached to finish the three-year battle.
In separate appearances on Sunday TV reveals in the US, Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Trump’s nationwide safety adviser, Mike Waltz, emphasised that there have been nonetheless challenges to be labored out earlier than Russia agrees to a ceasefire, a lot much less a last peaceable decision to the battle.
Requested on ABC whether or not the U.S. would settle for a peace deal wherein Russia was allowed to maintain stretches of jap Ukraine that it has seized, Waltz replied, “Are we going to drive each Russian off of each inch of Ukrainian soil?” He added that the negotiations needed to be grounded in “actuality.”
Rubio instructed CBS a last peace deal would “contain loads of exhausting work, concessions from each Russia and Ukraine,” and that it will be tough to even start these negotiations “so long as they’re capturing at one another.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated on Friday that he noticed a very good likelihood to finish the Russian battle after Kyiv accepted the U.S. proposal for a 30-day interim ceasefire.
Nevertheless, Zelenskiy has constantly stated that the sovereignty of his nation is just not negotiable and that Russia should give up the territory it has seized. Russia seized the Crimea peninsula in 2014 and now controls most of 4 jap Ukrainian areas because it invaded the nation in 2022.
Russia calls for ‘ironclad’ ensures
Russia will search “ironclad” ensures in any peace deal that NATO nations exclude Kyiv from membership and that Ukraine will stay impartial, a Russian deputy overseas minister stated in remarks revealed on Monday.
In a broad-ranging interview with the Russian media outlet Izvestia that made no reference to the ceasefire proposal, Deputy Overseas Minister Alexander Grushko stated that any long-lasting peace treaty on Ukraine should meet Moscow’s calls for.
“We are going to demand that ironclad safety ensures change into a part of this settlement,” Izvestia cited Grushko as saying.
“A part of these ensures ought to be the impartial standing of Ukraine, the refusal of NATO international locations to simply accept it into the alliance.”
Putin has stated his navy incursion into Ukraine was as a result of NATO’s creeping growth threatened Russia’s safety. He has demanded that Ukraine drop its NATO ambitions, that Russia retains management of all Ukrainian territory seized, and that the dimensions of the Ukrainian military be restricted. He additionally desires Western sanctions eased and a presidential election in Ukraine, which Kyiv says is untimely whereas martial regulation is in drive.
Peacekeepers
Trump, who has upended U.S. coverage by shifting nearer to Moscow, has described Ukraine as being tougher to work with than Russia. He held an explosive assembly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy final month that ended with the Ukrainian chief leaving the White Home early.
However Ukraine’s acceptance of a proposed ceasefire has now put the onus on Russia to cede to Trump’s calls for and can take a look at the U.S. president’s extra optimistic view of Putin.
Ukraine’s allies in Europe and Britain have stated that any ceasefire and supreme peace settlement have to be negotiated with Ukraine concerned in talks.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated on Saturday that Western allies aside from the U.S. have been stepping up preparations to help Ukraine within the occasion of a ceasefire with Russia, with defence chiefs set to agency up “strong plans” subsequent week.
Britain and France each have stated that they’re prepared to ship a peacekeeping drive to observe any ceasefire in Ukraine.
Russia has dominated out peacekeepers till the battle has ended.
“It doesn’t matter underneath what label NATO contingents have been to be deployed on Ukrainian territory: be it the European Union, NATO, or in a nationwide capability,” Grushko stated.
“If they seem there, it implies that they’re deployed within the battle zone with all the implications for these contingents as events to the battle,” he stated.
“We will discuss unarmed observers, a civilian mission that may monitor the implementation of particular person facets of this settlement, or assure mechanisms. Within the meantime, it is simply scorching air.”
French President Emmanuel Macron stated in remarks revealed on Sunday that the stationing of peacekeeping troops in Ukraine is a query for Kyiv to resolve and never Moscow.
