Trump-Putin phone call likely this week amid Russia-Ukraine peace talks

The US crowd for a ready ceasefire betwixt ukrayina and russian federation may get more impetus as President Donald Trump might dial Vladimir Putin sometime this week.

White House special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that the US is continuing its engagement and conversation with Ukraine as well.

“I expect that there’ll be a call with both presidents this week. And we’re also continuing to engage and have conversation with the Ukrainians,” Witkoff said on CNN’s State of the Union.

On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had asked Witkoff to convey messages to Trump ahead of a possible phone call and added there was “cautious optimism” about the prospect of a ceasefire deal, according to the Interfax news agency.

Just last week, Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow after Ukraine accepted the US proposal of a 30-day ceasefire in talks happening in Saudi Arabia. But the said proposal was rejected by Putin who maintains that issues still need to be resolved.

Witkoff termed his conversation with Putin as ‘positive’. According to the envoy, ‘it was a solution-based discussion.’ He added that he believes Putin “accepts the philosophy of President Trump,” and that both leaders want the war to end.

Witkoff reiterated that Donald Trump “really expects there to be some sort of deal in the coming weeks and I believe that’s the case.”

The belief in the Donald Trump administration seems to be that the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire deal is a matter of weeks. National security advisor Mike Waltz told ABC’s ‘This Week’ that while Vladimir Putin “will absolutely consider a ceasefire, there are some other things that he would like to see that President Trump’s national security team is considering over the coming days.”

“This is going to be some type of territory for future security guarantees, the future status of Ukraine. We know the components. There is a deal that will be had here,” Waltz said on the show.

Ukraine has been asking for assurances that the US and other allies will protect it in the event of a future Russian attack, but the White House has been reluctant to commit to that. Washington’s minerals deal with Kyiv fell through on that ground a few weeks earlier.

Trump’s push for a ceasefire has been controversial, sparking anger in Kyiv and across Europe that the US may be trying to force Ukraine to capitulate to the Russians. The US president pressured the Ukrainians with a pause in arms shipments and intelligence sharing, which was restored later.

Trump, who called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator,” has said the Ukrainians are more difficult to deal with than the Russians. And senior US officials have said it’s necessary to talk to both sides to bring peace to the battlefield after three years of war.

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