Trump says negotiators have already discussed ‘dividing up certain assets’ and that he will talk to Putin on Tuesday
US President Donald Trump said he plans to discuss ending the war in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and that negotiators had already discussed “dividing up certain assets”.
“I’ll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work’s been done over the weekend,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One during a late flight back to the Washington area from Florida.
“We want to see if we can bring that war to an end. Maybe we can, maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance,” Trump said.
Trump is trying to win Putin’s support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine accepted last week, as both sides continued trading heavy aerial strikes through the weekend and Russia moved closer to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold in the western Russian region of Kursk.
“We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants,” Trump said when asked about concessions. “I think we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia. We are already talking about that, dividing up certain assets.”
The comments came hours after his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said that the Russian president “accepts the philosophy” of Trump’s ceasefire and peace terms.
Witkoff told CNN that discussions with Putin over several hours last week had been “positive” and “solution-based”.
But he declined to confirm when asked whether Putin’s demands included the surrender of Ukrainian forces in Kursk, international recognition of Ukrainian territory seized by Russia as Russian, limits on Ukraine’s ability to mobilise, a halt to Western military aid, and a ban on foreign peacekeepers.
Putin said on Thursday that he supported a truce but outlined numerous details that need to be negotiated before the deal can be completed.
Moscow has among other things firmly opposed the deployment of European troops to provide security guarantees for Ukraine after any eventual ceasefire.
On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said Russia’s permission was not needed, noting that Ukraine was a sovereign state. “If Ukraine requests allied forces to be on its territory, it is not up to Russia to accept or reject them,” he said in remarks quoted by several French newspapers.
Later on Sunday Russia’s deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko said that any long-lasting peace treaty on Ukraine must meet Moscow’s demands.
“We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement,” Russian media outlet Izvestia cited Grushko as saying.
“Part of these guarantees should be the neutral status of Ukraine, the refusal of Nato countries to accept it into the alliance.”
The diplomatic developments came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had replaced the chief of general staff of the armed forces.
According to a communique, Anatoliy Bargylevych has been replaced by Andriy Gnatov, who “has been tasked with increasing the efficiency of the management.”
“He is a combat guy,” Zelenskyy said of Gnatov. “His task is to bring more combat experience, the experience of our brigades in planning operations, defensive and offensive, as well as more active development of the corps system,” he added.
The Ukrainian military, which has grown since mobilising to repel Russia’s February 2022 invasion, is in the process of reorganising its army corps to improve coordination.
Defence minister Rustem Umerov said on his Facebook page: “We are systematically transforming the Armed Forces of Ukraine to enhance their combat effectiveness.
“This involves restructuring the command system and implementing clear standards.” Gnatov, he said, had “more than 27 years of military experience”.
Bargylevych has been appointed as the chief inspector of the defence ministry, he added.
Source: The Guardian
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