U.S. President Donald Trump said he plans to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday about ending the war in Ukraine, adding that discussions are already underway on "dividing up certain assets" between the warring sides.
"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."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday confirmed that the call would take place.
The U.S. and Ukraine are pressing Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, but Putin has not given a clear response, instead listing conditions and raising "serious questions" about the proposal.
Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin for several hours last week, told CNN he expects "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."
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Kremlin of stalling to improve its battlefield position before agreeing to any ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Moscow said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss "concrete aspects of the implementation of understandings" reached at a U.S.-Russia summit in Saudi Arabia last month.
Last month's in Saudi Arabia was the first high-level meeting between the U.S. and Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
"Sergei Lavrov and Marco Rubio agreed to remain in contact," the Russian Foreign Ministry said, without mentioning the proposed ceasefire.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Saturday that the two diplomats "discussed the next steps" on Ukraine and "agreed to continue working towards restoring communication between the United States and Russia."
Their call came hours after the U.K. hosted a virtual summit on Ukraine, where British Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Putin of "dragging his feet" on the ceasefire.
"The 'yes, but' from Russia is not good enough," Starmer said, calling for an end to Russia's "barbaric attacks on Ukraine once and for all."
On Sunday, Ukraine said Russia launched 90 Iranian-made Shahed drones across nine Ukrainian regions.
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