U.S. President Donald Trump revealed that negotiators working to end the Russian-Ukrainian war have discussed “distribution of certain assets” as he announced his plan to speak with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, March 18.
Trump announced last week that Ukraine accepted a 30-day ceasefire promoted by the U.S., and his comments were posted after a Russian court announced whether to accept his proposal to end the war quickly.
“I think we’re doing a great job with Russia. We’ll see if there’s something to be announced by Tuesday and I’ll talk to President Putin on Tuesday,” he told reporters when he returned to the White House after Mar-A-Lago’s weekend.
“A lot of work has been done over the weekend and we want to see if we can end this war,” he said. “Maybe we can, maybe we can’t, but I think it’s very likely we can.”
“We’re going to talk about land. As you know, a lot of land is very different from pre-war. We’re going to talk about land, we’re going to talk about power plants, and that’s a big problem,” he added.
“But I think, both sides, Ukraine and Russia have already discussed a lot. We’re already talking about that – dividing certain assets.”
So far, Putin’s reaction to Trump-backed ceasefire proposal is not direct. He said Moscow theoretically agreed to the proposal. But he also raised tough conditions and demanded concessions from Kiev, repeating that his claim was that the current Ukrainian government was part of the “fundamental cause” of the war.
Russia first began occupying parts of Ukraine in 2014, before a full invasion in 2022, triggering the largest land conflict in Europe since World War II. According to data from the U.S. National Conflict Monitoring Agency, Ukraine has lost about 11% of its land control since the 2022 invasion.
Land concessions are one of the most sensitive issues for hammering. Ukraine may need to ced the war territory, and Putin makes it a condition for entry into a ceasefire, U.S. officials said.
But for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, it has long been a lifeless territory, with some European leaders worried that it seems to reward Putin for his invasion.
Trump was willing to give Moscow even before negotiations began, and his embrace of Putin shocked NATO allies, who are now openly questioning whether decades of U.S. security assurances could rely on assurances to the African continent.
Putin also said Friday that his country is working to restore relations with the United States because they “actually reduced it to zero and destroyed by the former U.S. government.”
\”In general, things are starting to develop,” he refers to the relationship with the Trump administration. “Let’s see what this is.”
