“We want to see if we can end this war,” Trump told reporters at Air Force One during a late flight back to the Florida Washington area. “Maybe we can, we may not, but I think we have a very good chance.
“I will talk to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work was done over the weekend.”
Trump is trying to gain Putin’s support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week, as both sides continued to negotiate heavy air attacks over the weekend and Russia approached the Ukrainian forces of its support in the Western Russian region of Kursk.
There was no immediate response from Kremlin to a request for commentary from Reuters.
Kremlin said on Friday that Putin had sent Trump a message about his ceasefire plan through us, Steve Witkoff, who kept negotiations in Moscow, expressing “cautious optimism” that an agreement could be achieved to end the three-year conflict.
In separate appearances on Sunday TV shows in the United States, Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Trump National Security Consultant, Mike Waltz, emphasized that there were still challenges to be prepared before Russia agrees with a cease, much less a final peaceful resolution for war.
Asked at ABC if the US would accept a peace agreement in which Russia was allowed to maintain excerpts from eastern Ukraine he seized, Waltz replied, “Shall we expel all the Russians from each centimeter of Ukrainian soil?” He added that negotiations had to be based on “reality.”
Rubio told CBS that a final peace agreement “would involve a lot of hard work, concessions from Russia and Ukraine” and that it would be difficult to start these negotiations “as long as they throw each other to each other.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday he saw a good chance to finish the Russian war after Kiev accepted the US proposal for a 30-day interim ceasefire.
However, Zelenskiy said consistently that the sovereignty of his country is not negotiable and that Russia must deliver the territory it has seized. Russia seized the Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and now controls most of the four Ukrainian regions of the East since it invaded the country in 2022.
IRONCLAD WARRANTIES ‘
Russia will seek to guarantee the “IRONCLAD” in any peace agreement that NATO nations exclude Kiev from the Association and that Ukraine will remain neutral, a Russian Foreign Vice -Minister said in comments published on Monday.
In a broad interview with Russian media Izvesia, who made no reference to the ceasefire proposal, Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that any lasting peace treaty in Ukraine must meet Moscow’s demands.
“We will require Ironclad’s safety guarantees to become part of this contract,” Izvesia told Grushko.
“Part of these guarantees must be the neutral status of Ukraine, the refusal of NATO countries to accept it in the alliance.”
Putin said his military foray into Ukraine was because NATO’s creeping expansion threatened Russia’s safety. He demanded that Ukraine abandon its NATO ambitions, Russia to maintain control of the entire Ukrainian territory and that the size of the Ukrainian army is limited. He also wants western sanctions to diminish and a presidential election in Ukraine, which Kiev says he is premature while martial law is in force.
Peace
Trump, who opened us to US politics, moving closer to Moscow, described Ukraine as harder to work than Russia. He held an explosive meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last month, who ended with the Ukrainian leader leaving the White House early.
But Ukraine’s acceptance of a ceasefire -proposed fourth has now placed the burden in Russia to give in to Trump’s demands and will test the US president’s most positive view of Putin.
The allies of Ukraine in Europe and Britain said any cease agreement and peace must be negotiated with Ukraine involved in negotiations.
The first -British minister Keir Strmer said on Saturday that other Western allies besides the US were intensifying the preparations to support Ukraine in the event of a cease -Fogo with Russia, with defense heads to sign “robust plans” next week.
Britain and France have said they are willing to send a peacekeeping force to monitor any cease in Ukraine.
Russia has ruled out peace forces until the war is over.
“No matter what NATO contingents should be implemented in the Ukrainian territory: whether the European Union, NATO or in national capacity,” said Grushko.
“If they appear there, it means that they are implemented in the conflict zone with all the consequences for these contingents as parts of the conflict,” he said.
“We can talk about unarmed observers, a civil mission that would monitor the implementation of individual aspects of this contract, or warranty mechanisms. Meanwhile, it is just hot air.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said in comments published on Sunday that the post of peacekeeping troops in Ukraine is a question for Kiev to decide and not Moscow.
