Putin, Trump to discuss Ukraine Wednesday

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will discuss ‘land, power plants and dividing up assets,’ when they speak by phone on Wednesday (AEDT).

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will speak by phone on Wednesday (AEDT). Picture: AFP

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will speak by phone on Tuesday (local time), and will discuss “land, power plans and dividing up assets,” the US President has confirmed.

Mr Trump said “a lot of work” had been done between the United States and Russia on settling the three-year Ukraine conflict, and that there was a “very good chance” hostilities would end.

In a White House briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr Trump was “determined” to reach a ceasefire deal.

“We’ve never been closer to peace than at this moment,” Ms Leavitt said.

Mr Putin said last week he agreed with the idea of a ceasefire but warned he had “serious questions” about how it would be implemented that he wanted to discuss with Mr Trump.

Kyiv has agreed to the ceasefire, while its European allies have criticised Mr Putin for not committing to an unconditional and immediate halt in fighting, with the UK accusing the Russian leader of “dragging his feet”.

“There is such a conversation being prepared for Tuesday,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday, ahead of the Trump-Putin call, without commenting on what the two leaders would discuss.

Mr Trump has said the two would discuss “land” and power plants: an apparent reference to the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in south Ukraine.

Russia occupies swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine.

The US president last spoke to Mr Putin last month in a call that broke Western efforts to isolate the Russian leader as long as his forces keep up their Ukraine offensive.

Mr Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met Mr Putin last Thursday in Moscow to present the details of the joint ceasefire plan, which envisages a 30-day pause in hostilities.

Mr Witkoff told CNN he expected some sort of deal in the “coming weeks”.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has reacted with anger to Mr Putin’s statements, accusing him of wanting to prolong the fighting.

On Saturday, Mr Zelensky warned that Moscow wanted to first “improve their situation on the battlefield” before agreeing to any ceasefire.

Moscow has been pressing ahead in several areas of the front for over a year. On Monday, Russia claimed its forces had captured Stepove – a village in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region – although open-source battlefield maps showed it outside Moscow’s control.

Valentyna, a 62-year-old in the eastern town of Kostiantynivka, where evacuations were under way with the Russians advancing, said “everybody is waiting for peace”.

She looked after dogs of neighbours who left the frontline town but, like many elderly people, was reluctant to leave.

“Everyone hopes (for peace)”, she said. “People are waiting. People are tired.”

The Kremlin, meanwhile, was boasting of its forces ousting Ukrainian troops from Russia’s western Kursk region as a major success.

Moscow last week retook the main town that Ukraine seized in its summer 2024 incursion, Sudzha, and swathes of areas around it.

Russia has said it has moved several hundred civilians that were previously trapped in Kyiv-held areas.

Ukraine has conceded it is in a difficult position in the region, but denies its troops are surrounded.

Mr Zelensky replaced his army’s chief of general staff last week as Kyiv’s frontline troops continued to struggle.

After a brief lull in drone fire last week, both sides appeared to have stepped up attacks on Monday.

Ukrainian forces launched a drone attack on southern Russia, sparking a blaze at an oil refinery, while Moscow launched a barrage of nearly 200 drones against Ukraine.

Mr Putin last week said he would back a ceasefire but only if it led to “long-term peace and addresses the root causes of the crisis”.

Among Putin’s demands are that Ukraine never join the NATO military alliance, that European peacekeepers not be deployed on Ukrainian territory, and that Moscow be allowed to keep all the land it currently occupies.

AFP