President Donald Trump said late Sunday that negotiators in Washington and Moscow have begun discussing the division of assets between Russia and Ukraine in an effort to bring to an end the three-year-long war between the two countries.
The president told reporters aboard Air Force One that he plans to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and that the conversation would discuss "dividing up certain assets," including land and power plants.
“I think we have a lot of it already discussed by both sides — Ukraine and Russia,” Trump said. “We want to see if we can bring that war to an end. Maybe we can, maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance.”
The talks expected to get underway Tuesday will see Trump attempt to win Putin’s support for a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the U.S. and Ukraine after their delegates met in Saudi Arabia last week, but which Putin said needed to meet crucial demands made by the Kremlin.
Putin and his officials have repeatedly indicated that they want to cement Russia's land grabs during the three-year war and stop Kyiv from ever joining NATO.
Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko reiterated those goals Monday, telling Russian outlet Izvestia that Russia will seek "iron-clad security guarantees” to ensure Kyiv’s exclusion from NATO in any peace deal and Ukraine's neutrality regarding the bloc.
Pressure has been mounting on Russia to cede to Trump's demands after Ukraine accepted the ceasefire proposal last week, though Grushko's comments Monday made no reference to the ceasefire proposal.
He also said that Russia would oppose any troops in Ukraine as part of post-conflict guarantees, including NATO troops, with Britain and France both saying in recent weeks that they are willing to send forces to monitor any ceasefire.
“If [those soldiers] appear there, it means that they are deployed in the conflict zone with all the consequences for these contingents as parties to the conflict,” he added.
The Ukrainian and Russian militaries continued to trade heavy aerial strikes over the weekend as Russian forces continued in their efforts to retake the western Russian region of Kursk, where Ukrainian forces had gained a strong foothold in recent months.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Monday that its forces destroyed 72 Ukrainian drones overnight and took control of the southern village of Stepove in southeastern Ukraine.
That came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Putin of prolonging the war and ignoring U.S.-led efforts to broker a ceasefire.
“The buildup of Russian forces indicates that Moscow intends to keep ignoring diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Saturday.
“We are ready to provide our partners with all the real information on the situation at the front, in the Kursk region and along our border,” he added.
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