Photo: Reuters
US President Donald Trump stated that he plans to discuss stopping the war in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 18. Prior to this, US and Russian officials had held negotiations in Moscow, which Trump described as "very good and effective." At the same time, Putin has put forward conditions for discussing Washington and Kyiv's proposal for a temporary ceasefire.
“I will talk to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work has been done over the weekend,” Trump said to reporters aboard his plane flying from Florida to Washington (quotes cited by Reuters).
“We will see if we can put an end to this war. Maybe we can, maybe we can't, but I think we have very good opportunities,” said the US president.
In response to a question about what concessions might be considered in negotiations to stop the fighting, Trump replied: “We will talk about land. We will talk about power plants” (the media speculates that he was referring to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant).
“I think both sides, Ukraine and Russia, have already discussed a lot. We are already talking about sharing certain assets, they are working on that,” the US president added.
Trump did not clarify exactly what assets were being discussed and that such agreements could be temporary.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “Yes, this is indeed the case. Preparations are being made for such communication on Tuesday.” He declined to provide further details: “We never do that, we never get ahead of events.”
According to BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale, information from Kyiv indicates that there is currently no discussion of a long-term agreement based on the principle of "land for peace." Instead, the parties are discussing where the lines of contact should be if an agreement to stop the fighting is reached, Landale reports.
Ukraine has repeatedly emphasized that it will never agree to the recognition of its territories as part of Russia.
Negotiations in Moscow and Jeddah
On March 11, Trump is trying to gain support from Putin for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine agreed to during US-Ukrainian negotiations held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Earlier, on February 18, a US-Russia meeting took place in another Saudi city, Riyadh.
Consequences of one of the last strikes on Ukraine
On March 13, Putin received US President's special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow.
The Kremlin described the results of the meeting with restraint: Witkoff provided “additional information” about the initiative to stop the fighting in Ukraine, while Putin was said to have provided “information and additional signals for Trump” through Witkoff.
Trump expressed a more optimistic view about the meeting in the Kremlin. “We had very good and effective negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and there are very good opportunities for this terrible, bloody war to finally end,” he wrote on the Truth Social social network.
The diplomatic process is taking place against the backdrop of the Russian army's offensive in the Kursk region, where the Russian army managed to retake the city of Sudja, which had been occupied by Ukrainians for 7 months.
The first phone conversation between Trump and the Russian president after returning to the presidency took place on February 12.
In an attempt to get closer to Moscow, Trump previously tried to portray Ukraine as a country that finds negotiations more difficult than Russia.
In February, he hosted President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, but the meeting ended with a noisy dispute and negotiations falling apart, only for delegations to succeed in restoring relations in Jeddah the following week.
The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that any long-term peace agreement regarding Ukraine must meet Moscow's demands before the second phone conversation between Putin and Trump.
“We demand that the ironclad security guarantees be part of this agreement,” said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko in an interview with the newspaper "Izvestia." “One part of these guarantees should be Ukraine's neutral status, and NATO countries must refrain from accepting it as a member of the alliance. In fact, this very rule is noted in the drafts of the agreements.”
The issue of Ukraine's accession to NATO and the European Union is enshrined in the country's constitution. The North Atlantic Alliance also officially adheres to an "open door" policy, which implies that countries can independently decide to join the bloc.
Debate on Western peacekeeping forces
The United Kingdom and France have expressed their readiness to send peacekeeping forces to monitor compliance with the peace in Ukraine, but Moscow rejects this option.
“We have absolutely no interest in what label NATO contingents can be placed under in Ukraine: European Union, NATO, or national level,” Grushko said. “In any case, if they appear there, it means that they are placed in a conflict zone that has all the consequences for these contingents as parties to the conflict.”
“It could also be about unarmed observers, a civilian mission that monitors the implementation of certain aspects of this agreement, or guarantee mechanisms. For now, however, it is just empty talk,” he added.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stated on Monday that Moscow's position indicates a desire for surrender rather than peace from Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated on Sunday that the deployment of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine is a matter that should be decided by Kyiv, not Moscow.
On March 13, Putin had already commented on Washington and Kyiv's proposal for reconciliation before meeting with Trump's special envoy Witkoff.
“We will join this, but there are delicate aspects,” Putin said, putting forward a number of conditions. Among other things, he demanded that the West stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and halt the mobilization of Ukrainian armed forces, as well as that Ukrainian soldiers remaining in the Kursk region must surrender.
Amid reports of new diplomatic relations between Moscow and Kyiv, the New York Times reported on Monday that the US Department of Justice informed European officials about its withdrawal from the international center for prosecuting aggressive crimes against Ukraine.
Source: Kun.uz
