In an effort to terminate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a long phone discussion on Tuesday. The White House is urging Russia to accept a 30-day ceasefire agreement.
While neither the White House nor the Kremlin provided any immediate specifics regarding the nature of the discussion, they did affirm that the call had concluded.
Prior to the call, Trump stated his intention to address with Putin the areas and power plants that have been captured during the course of the three-year conflict.
While meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Saudi Arabia last week, Ukrainian authorities accepted the American plan. But while Russian soldiers keep bombing Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is still unconvinced that Putin is prepared for peace.
Trump has prioritized finishing the conflict swiftly, even at the cost of straining ties with old American allies who want Putin to pay for the invasion. The engagement is the latest move in the rapidly altering U.S.-Russia relations.
“The situation in Russia and Ukraine is very bad,” Trump said reporters on Monday. It’s unfortunate that things are going downhill in Ukraine, but we will try to negotiate a truce and end the fighting. Plus, I have faith that we can pull it off.
Last week, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow to discuss the plan in advance of the Trump-Putin chat. During negotiations in Saudi Arabia, Rubio was able to get senior Ukrainian officials to agree to the terms of the ceasefire.
Putin expressed his agreement with the U.S. plan last week, but stressed that Russia would need assurances that Ukraine would not restock and keep mobilizing during a truce in hostilities. In order to maintain Russia’s influence over Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has imposed a number of demands, including that the country downsize its armed forces drastically, safeguard Russian language and culture, and reject NATO membership.
In an effort to resolve the crisis, the president of the United States stated that talks between Russia and Ukraine over “dividing up certain assets” had already started.
Trump has boasted about his ties with Putin, blamed Ukraine for Russia’s incursion, and accused Zelenskyy of needlessly extending the greatest land battle in Europe since World battle II. During his campaign, Trump promised to finish the war swiftly.
Tuesday, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Putin, informed reporters that the conflict in Ukraine will be discussed between Trump and Putin. However, he also mentioned that there are a “large number of questions” about repairing U.S.-Russia ties.
This discussion, which Trump has said may include land and power plant management, will take place on the eleventh anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine. Russia was able to conquer its neighbor in 2022 because of the audacious land grab.
The fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, located in southern Ukraine and considered to be Europe’s largest, has reportedly been discussed between U.S. and Russian officials, according to Witkoff and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Since Moscow’s armies invaded Ukraine in 2022 and promptly took control of the factory, it has been caught in the crossfire. Concerns about a possible nuclear disaster have been heightened by the continuous worry expressed by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency.
In the year leading up to the conflict, the facility supplied roughly 25% of Ukraine’s electrical needs, making it an important asset.
The 10th yard line of peace is where we are, Leavitt remarked. Plus, we’ve never been this close to a peace agreement as we are right now. Furthermore, the president is hell-bent on completing one.
Nevertheless, Bradley Bowman, a senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Military and Political Power, raised doubts about Putin’s readiness to stop the conflict and if he will continue to seek possible concessions from Trump, who is becoming increasingly impatient.
Trump momentarily severed some military aid and information cooperation with Ukraine following a poor meeting with Zelenskyy on February 28. Last week, the Ukrainians approved the 30-day ceasefire plan put out by the Trump administration, and it was subsequently restored.
U.S. “preemptive concessions” have been “weakening the American and Ukrainian negotiating position,” according to Bowman. “I fear that the administration’s strategy is reducing itself to using sanctions against Ukraine and incentives for Putin.”
In Monday’s evening video message, Zelensky reiterated his continued skepticism that Putin is prepared for peace.
It is evident to everyone in the world, including those who have denied the reality for the last three years, that Putin is the one prolonging this conflict, Zelenskyy stated. This realization has come to light over a week later.
Whenever Trump has dealt with Putin or Zelenskyy, he has often emphasized who has the upper hand. Trump has stated time and time again that Putin possesses “the cards” but Zelenskyy does not.
The president, who has a long history of affection for Putin, has also stated his desire for a normalization of relations between the United States and Russia.
The president recently met with Zelenskyy in a heated manner, during which he complained that “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me.” This was in reference to the federal investigation into Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election, which he won over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Once again, Trump emphasized Monday that Ukraine is not in a strong position to negotiate. Zelenskyy has denied the claim that Russian forces had “surrounded” Ukrainian troops in the Kursk area of Russia, although he has echoed the claim.
In August of last year, the Ukrainian army shocked Russia by crossing the border and seizing control of almost 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of territory. With the push for a truce with Russia growing, Ukraine’s military are retreating and the country has nearly lost a vital negotiating piece.
Despite his denials of Russian assertions that his forces are besieged in Kursk, Zelenskyy has admitted that the Ukrainians are in a weak position.
In an unnamed tweet, Trump claimed credit for preventing Russia’s massacre of Ukrainian forces in Kursk.
According to Trump, “if it weren’t for me, they wouldn’t be here any longer” and that Russian military are surrounding them.
On First and Fifth Amendment grounds, The Associated Press is suing three members of the Trump administration, including Leavitt. According to the AP, the trio is taking revenge on the news agency because of editorial decisions that they disagree with. The president’s directive designating the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America has been disregarded by the Associated Press, according to the White House.
