President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak about the war in Ukraine on Tuesday, and suggested the two sides have discussed “dividing up certain assets” in an effort to end the conflict.
Trump appeared to indicate that the United States will not object to Russia maintaining control of parts of occupied Ukraine seized after Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.
“We’ll be talking about land, we’ll be talking about power plants,” the U.S. president told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, when asked what concessions he might ask of his Russian counterpart to achieve a ceasefire. “But I think we already have a lot of it discussed by both sides, Ukraine and Russian.”
He added: “We’re already talking about dividing up certain assets, and they’ve been working on that.”
The Kremlin confirmed Monday that Putin is slated to speak to Trump, while Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told newspaper Izvestia that his country “will demand that ironclad security guarantees” barring Ukraine from NATO membership be part of any peace deal.
“Part of these guarantees should be the neutral status of Ukraine, the refusal of NATO countries to accept it into the alliance,” he said.
Trump has already ruled out offering Ukraine NATO membership.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has agreed to a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday accused Putin of deliberately prolonging negotiations in order to try and seize more territory or capture troops for leverage.
When he addressed reporters on board Air Force One, Trump was noncommittal about whether or not talks with Putin would result in a ceasefire, but said progress had been made in negotiations over the weekend.
“We want to see if we can bring that war to an end,” he said. “Maybe we can, maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance.”
Trump’s remarks came the same day that his national security advisor, Mike Waltz, suggested in an ABC interview that it is unreasonable to expect to “drive every Russian off of every inch of Ukrainian soil, including Crimea” and that the Biden administration had pursued a policy of “endless warfare.”
The developments come after Putin and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff met in Moscow on Thursday. After their discussions, the Kremlin said was “cautious optimism” about the prospects for a peace process, while Trump called the discussion “good and productive.”
Since taking office, Trump has radically reoriented America’s relationship with Moscow, not only by opening up direct talks with the autocratic Putin, but also by spreading Kremlin-friendly falsehoods about Zelensky, a democratically elected leader who he has called a “dictator.”
After provoking a contentious blowup in the White House with Zelensky during a state visit, Trump temporarily suspended military aid to and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, both of which have since resumed.
In another move that will go down well in Moscow, the Trump administration informed European allies Monday that the U.S. is withdrawing from a multinational group investigating Russian leaders and their allies for their culpability, according to a report by The New York Times.
On the campaign trail last year, Trump claimed he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office.
Asked about that assertion on syndicated news show Full Measure by host Sharyl Attkisson, Trump said: “I was being a little bit sarcastic when I said that. What I really mean is I’d like to get it settled and I think I’ll be successful.”
