US President Donald Trump says he plans to speak to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday about ending the war in Ukraine, adding discussions are already ongoing about "dividing up certain assets" between the warring parties.
US officials had expressed optimism on Sunday that a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire deal could be reached in weeks after Washington proposed a halt in fighting in the three-year war after talks in Saudi Arabia, which Kiev accepted.
"I think we'll be talking about land... we'll be talking about power plants," Trump said aboard Air Force One.
"I think we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia. We're already talking about that, dividing up certain assets."
Washington and Kiev's European allies are pressing Moscow to accept a halt in the fighting, but Putin has given no clear answer — instead listing a string of conditions and raising "serious questions" over the proposal.
Trump's envoy for the conflict, Steve Witkoff, who met for several hours with Putin days ago, told CNN that he thinks "the two presidents are going to have a really good and positive discussion this week."
Trump, he added, "really expects there to be some sort of deal in the coming weeks, maybe, and I believe that's the case".
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday accused the Kremlin of not wanting to end the war. He warned that Moscow wanted to first "improve their situation on the battlefield" before agreeing to any ceasefire.
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Rubio, Lavrov meeting
Earlier, Moscow said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had called his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to discuss "concrete aspects of the implementation of understandings" at a US-Russia summit in Saudi Arabia last month.
February's Riyadh gathering was the first high-level meeting between the United States and Russia since Moscow launched its attack in February 2022.
"Sergey Lavrov and Marco Rubio agreed to remain in contact," the Russian foreign ministry said, with no mention of the US-suggested ceasefire.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Saturday that the pair had "discussed the next steps" on Ukraine, and "agreed to continue working towards restoring communication between the United States and Russia".
TRT Global - Trump has said he would probably meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy next week to discuss the end of the war.
