Trump to talk to Putin on US ceasefire proposal

President Donald Trump is set to hold talks over the phone on Tuesday (March 18) with Russian President Vladimir Putin over US ceasefire proposal that he hopes can create a pathway to ending Russia’s devastating war on Ukraine.

The White House is optimistic that peace is within reach even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains skeptical that Putin is doing much beyond paying lip service to Trump as Russian forces continue to pound his country.

The engagement is just the latest turn in dramatically shifting US-Russia relations as Trump has made quickly ending the conflict a top priority, even at the expense of straining ties with longtime American allies who want Putin to pay a price for the invasion.

“It’s a bad situation in Russia, and it’s a bad situation in Ukraine,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “What’s happening in Ukraine is not good, but we’re going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace. And I think we’ll be able to do it.”

In preparation for the Trump-Putin call, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff met last week with Putin in Moscow to discuss the proposal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had persuaded senior Ukrainian officials during talks in Saudi Arabia to agree to the ceasefire framework.

The US president said Washington and Moscow have already begun discussing “dividing up certain assets" between Ukraine and Russia as part of a deal to end the conflict.

Trump, who during his campaign pledged to quickly end the war, has at moments boasted of his relationship with Putin and blamed Ukraine for Russia’s unprovoked invasion, all while accusing Zelenskyy of unnecessarily prolonging the biggest land war in Europe since World War II.

Trump has said that swaps of land and power plants will be part of the conversation with Putin.