U.S. President Donald Trump said he would speak with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday after negotiators pushed for Russia to back a U.S.-Ukrainian ceasefire proposal.
"A lot of work was done over the weekend. We want to see if we can end this war," Trump said late Sunday night. "I think we have a good chance," He added.
Trump is seeking Russia's support for the interim 30-day ceasefire and cessation of hostilities that Ukraine accepted last week. "We will negotiate for the country. We're going to talk about power plants," Trump said, adding that negotiators had already discussed 'the division of certain assets'.
His comments came at a time when the special envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN that Trump and Putin are expected to speak this week. Witkoff, who recently visited Moscow to move the talks forward, said the discussions with Putin were "positive" and "solutions-based."
He sidestepped questions on several of the more difficult aspects of the ceasefire proposal, such as whether Putin would demand the surrender of Ukrainian forces in Kursk, a halt to military aid to Ukraine and recognition of Ukrainian territory occupied by Moscow's forces as Russian.
Last Thursday, Putin said he supported the ceasefire but listed several issues he said still needed to be discussed, including the status of Ukrainian troops in Kursk, western Russia. Among other things, Moscow has said it will not agree to the deployment of a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine - an idea proposed by France and the United Kingdom.
French President Emmanuel Macron suggested in comments in several newspapers on Saturday that Russia's acceptance of such troops - which he described as contingents of soldiers - was not necessary because Ukraine is a sovereign state. "If Ukraine asks for the presence of allied forces on its territory, it is not up to Russia to accept or reject them," quote Macron.
On Sunday, the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrovto discuss "next steps" with him after the meeting in Saudi Arabia. The two agreed to "work to restore communication between the United States and Russia", the US State Department material said, without mentioning the ceasefire proposal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again accused Putin of "deliberately" prolonging the ceasefire proposal to complicate the process and prolong the war.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer echoed Zelensky's criticism after he held a virtual summit on Ukraine on Saturday at which he called Russia's response "insufficient".
The US-backed ceasefire proposal, which Ukraine accepted after negotiations in Saudi Arabia, called for a temporary cessation of fighting, including in the Black Sea region and along the entire front line.
The diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement come at a time when Russia and Ukraine were exchanging drone fire over the weekend and Monday morning, according to officials from both countries.
On Sunday, Ukraine's general staff confirmed the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Sudzha logistics centre in the Kursk region, days after Moscow said it had seized the area where Ukraine made a surprise incursion last year.
euronews/ gnews.cz - RoZ
ILLUSTRATION PHOTO - Facebook Donald J. Trump
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