US President Donald Trump will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, seeking support for a cease-fire proposal he hopes could mark the beginning of an end to Russia's devastating war with Ukraine.
The White House is optimistic about the prospects for peace, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky remains skeptical that Putin is doing more than supporting Trump while Russian troops continue to shell his country.
The development represents just the latest stage in a dramatic shift in relations between the United States and Russia, as Mr Trump has made a top priority of ending the conflict as quickly as possible – even at the cost of worsening relations with America's long-standing allies who are holding Mr Putin accountable for his incursion.
“The situation in Russia is bad, and in Ukraine too,” Mr. Trump told the press on Monday.
“What is happening in Ukraine is not good, but let's see if we can come to a peace agreement, a ceasefire and the restoration of peace. And I believe that we can achieve this.”
In preparation for the Trump-Putin call, White House Special Representative Steve Witkoff met with Mr. Putin in Moscow last week to discuss the proposal.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged senior Ukrainian officials to support the ceasefire agreement during talks in Saudi Arabia.
The US President noted that Washington and Moscow have already begun discussions on the “division of certain assets” between Ukraine and Russia as part of a potential agreement to end the conflict.
Mr Trump, who campaigned on a promise to end the war quickly, has at times boasted about his relationship with Mr Putin and accused Ukraine of unprovoked Russian incursion while chiding Mr Zelensky for unnecessarily prolonging Europe's biggest ground war since World War II.
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that Trump and Putin would discuss the war in Ukraine, adding that there were also “many questions” about normalizing relations between the U.S. and Russia.
According to Peskov, the call will be made between 13:00 and 15:00 Irish time.
Mr Trump said land and energy swaps would be part of the talks.
Mr. Witkoff and White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt suggested that U.S. and Russian officials had discussed the fate of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, the largest in the
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
