WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said he would speak to Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Tuesday about ending the Ukraine war, with territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant likely to feature prominently in the talks.
“We want to see if we can bring that war to an end,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One during a flight to the Washington area from Florida. “Maybe we can, maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance.
“I’ll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work’s been done over the weekend.”
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 early on Monday and Russia moved closer to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold in the western Russian region of Kursk.
Asked what concessions were being considered in ceasefire negotiations, Trump said: “We’ll be talking about land. We’ll be talking about power plants ... We’re already talking about that, dividing up certain assets.”
Trump gave no details but he appeared to be referring to the Russian-occupied facility in Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear plant. Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of risking an accident at the plant with their actions.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a regular briefing on Monday that “there’s a power plant that is on the border of Russia and Ukraine that was up for discussion with the Ukrainians, and he (Trump) will address it in his call with Putin tomorrow.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Monday that Putin would speak with Trump by phone but declined to comment on Trump’s remarks about land and power plants.
The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin had sent Trump a message about his ceasefire plan via US envoy Steve Witkoff, who held talks in Moscow, expressing “cautious optimism” that a deal could be reached to end the three-year conflict.
In separate appearances on Sunday TV shows in the United States, Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Trump’s National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, emphasized there were still challenges to be worked out before Russia agrees to a ceasefire, much less a final peaceful resolution to the war.
Asked on ABC whether the US would accept a peace deal in which Russia was allowed to keep Ukrainian territory that it has seized, Waltz replied: “We have to ask ourselves, is it in our national interest? Is it realistic? ... Are we going to drive every Russian off of every inch of Ukrainian soil?“
“We can talk about what is right or wrong but also have to talk about the reality of the situation on the ground,” he said, adding that the alternative to finding compromises on land and other issues was “endless warfare” and even World War Three.
“Ironclad guarantees”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he sees a good chance to end the war after Kyiv accepted the US proposal for a 30-day interim ceasefire.
However, Zelensky has consistently said the sovereignty of his country is not negotiable and that Russia must surrender the territory it has seized. Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and now controls most of four eastern Ukrainian regions since it invaded the country in 2022.
Zelensky has not responded publicly to Waltz’s remarks.
Russia will seek “ironclad” guarantees in any peace deal that NATO nations exclude Kyiv from membership and that Ukraine will remain neutral, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Russian media outlet Izvestia in remarks published on Monday that made no reference to the ceasefire proposal.
“We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement,” Izvestia cited Grushko as saying.
Putin says his actions in Ukraine are aimed at protecting Russia’s national security against what he casts as an aggressive and hostile West, in particular NATO’s eastward expansion. Ukraine and its Western partners say Russia is waging an unprovoked war of aggression and an imperial-style land grab.
Moscow has demanded that Ukraine drop its NATO ambitions, that Russia keep control of all Ukrainian territory seized, and that the size of the Ukrainian army be limited. It also wants Western sanctions eased and a presidential election in Ukraine, which Kyiv says is premature while martial law is in force.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Monday that the conditions demanded by Russia to agree to a ceasefire showed that Moscow does not really want peace.
Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said the onus should be on Russia as the invading country, not Ukraine, to make concessions “because otherwise you would be compromising international law.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday that “a significant number” of nations — including Britain and France — were willing to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia. Defense chiefs will meet this week to firm up plans.
Russia has ruled out peacekeepers until the war has ended.
“If they appear there, it means that they are deployed in the conflict zone with all the consequences for these contingents as parties to the conflict,” Russia’s Grushko said.
“We can talk about unarmed observers, a civilian mission that would monitor the implementation of individual aspects of this agreement, or guarantee mechanisms. In the meantime, it’s just hot air.”
Trump and Putin to discuss power plants, land in talks to end Ukraine war
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Trump and Putin to discuss power plants, land in talks to end Ukraine war

- Trump said: “We’ll be talking about land. We’ll be talking about power plants ... We’re already talking about that, dividing up certain assets”
German police launch manhunt after 2 people shot dead

- There was no information yet about the "circumstances, or the motive of the perpetrators", they said.
The bodies of the two victims, both with gunshot wounds, were found in front of a residential address in Bad Nauheim, a town north of Frankfurt, on Saturday afternoon, Giessen city police said.
“A big force deployment” of police from uniformed, plain clothes and special forces branches have fanned out, backed by a helicopter, to find the perpetrator or perpetrators, it said.
“The current understanding is that there is no danger for inhabitants or other people,” police said.
There was no information yet about the “circumstances, or the motive of the perpetrators,” they said.
Police and prosecutors have opened an investigation.
Bad Nauheim is 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Frankfurt and has a population of around 33,000. It was famous for being where Elvis Presley did US military service between 1958 and 1960 and where he met his future wife, Priscilla Presley.
South Korea, US, to hold trade talks this week, Seoul says

- South Korea hopes to lower the 25% "reciprocal" tariff that President Donald Trump has announced for the country.
SEOUL: South Korea and the United States will hold trade consultations this week in Washington at the suggestion of the United States, Seoul’s trade ministry said on Sunday.
Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun will meet with Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the sidelines of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the ministry said in a statement.
South Korea hopes to lower the 25 percent “reciprocal” tariff that President Donald Trump has announced for the country, which he has since paused along with high tariffs slapped on a string of countries.
Ahn will leave on Wednesday, the statement said. It did not specify the agenda or give other details.
China’s US envoy urges end to trade war, but warns Beijing ready to fight

- The trade war has all but frozen the mammoth trade between the world's two largest economies
- Trump said on Friday the U.S. is having good conversations privately with China amid the two countries' trade war.
DUBAI: China’s ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, has urged Washington to seek common ground with Beijing and pursue peaceful coexistence while warning that China stood ready to retaliate in the escalating trade war.
Speaking at a public event in Washington on Saturday, details of which were posted on the Chinese embassy’s web site, Xie said tariffs would devastate the global economy and drew a parallel between the Great Depression and tariffs imposed by the US in 1930.
Referring to concepts in traditional Chinese medicine like the need to balance the opposing forces of yin and yang, Xie said harmony should guide relations between the world’s two largest economies.
“A good traditional Chinese medicine recipe usually combines many different ingredients which reinforce one another and creates the best medical effect,” he said.
“Likewise, the earth is big enough to accommodate both China and the US,” he said. “We should pursue peaceful coexistence rather than collide head-on, and help each other succeed rather than get caught in a lose-lose scenario.”
The trade war has all but frozen the mammoth trade between the world’s two largest economies with tariffs over 100 percent in each direction and a suite of trade, investment and cultural restrictions.
China’s top shipbuilding association on Saturday attacked a US plan to apply port fees on China-linked ships.
While Japan, Taiwan and others are already in talks or preparing to negotiate with Washington over President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, there is currently no high-level dialogue planned with China.
Trump said on Friday the US is having good conversations privately with China amid the two countries’ trade war.
“By the way, we have nice conversations going with China,” he told reporters at the White House. “It’s, like, really very good.” He did not offer additional details.
China has said the US should show respect before any talks can take place.
Xie said China opposed the trade war and would retaliate to any country imposing tariffs on it.
Putin attends Orthodox Easter service after declaring ceasefire in Ukraine

- The traditionally sung service starts late on a Saturday and lasts into the early hours of Sunday
- Zelensky says Russian army ‘trying to create impression’ of Easter ceasefire
President Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin joined other worshippers for an Easter service led by the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, a faithful backer of the Russian leader and an advocate for the war in Ukraine.
Hours after declaring a unilateral Easter ceasefire that Kyiv said was just words as fighting continued, Putin and Sobyanin stood in Moscow’s main church, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, while Kirill led a procession, video of the service showed.
Holding a lit thin red candle and donning a dark suit, white shirt and a red tie as in years past, the Russian leader crossed himself several times when Kirill announced “Christ is risen.”
The traditionally sung service starts late on a Saturday and lasts into the early hours of Sunday.
For Putin, the Orthodox faith is central to his world view and he always attends services during major church holidays. For Orthodox Russians, Easter is the most important religious holiday.
At the service, Krill called for “lasting and just peace can be established in the vast expanses of historical Rus,” RIA state news agency reported, in what was a reference to a medieval territory that encompassed parts of what is now Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. “How wonderfully it was said, do not do evil to another and do not treat others as you would not want them to treat you,” TASS agency cited Kirill as saying.
“If people adhered to this holiday commandment, then life would be completely different: family and social life and — let me say this — inter-governmental.”
Kirill has strongly backed the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year. Thousands have been killed, the vast majority of them Ukrainians, and millions driven from their homes since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Zelensky says Russian army ‘trying to create impression’ of Easter ceasefire
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that the Russian army is making a pretense of an Easter ceasefire declared by President Vladimir Putin, continuing overnight attempts to inflict front-line losses on Ukraine.
“In general, as of Easter morning, we can say that the Russian army is trying to create a general impression of a ceasefire, but in some places it does not abandon individual attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.
Early on Sunday, Ukrainian forces reported 59 instances of shelling and five assault attempts along the front line, he said.
“Russia must fully comply with the conditions of silence,” Zelensky said.
He reiterated that Kyiv was willing to extend the ceasefire for 30 days but said that if Russia kept fighting on Sunday, so would Ukraine.
“Ukraine will continue to act in a mirror manner,” he said.
Zelensky says Ukraine will observe Putin’s Easter truce but claims violations

- The order to halt all combat over the Easter weekend came after months of efforts by US President Donald Trump to get Moscow and Kyiv to agree a ceasefire
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine: Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday his forces would observe a surprise Easter truce announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin set to last until midnight on Sunday, even as air-raid sirens sounded in Kyiv.
The 30-hour truce would be the most significant pause in the fighting throughout the three-year conflict.
But just hours after the order was meant to have come into effect, air-raid sirens sounded in the Ukrainian capital and Zelensky accused Russia of having maintained its artillery fire and assaults on the frontline.
Also on Saturday, Russia and Ukraine held a large exchange of prisoners, each side saying they had handed back more than 240 captured fighters.
The order to halt all combat over the Easter weekend came after months of efforts by US President Donald Trump to get Moscow and Kyiv to agree a ceasefire. On Friday, Washington even threatened to withdraw from talks if no progress was made.
“Today from 1800 (1500 GMT Saturday) to midnight Sunday (2100 GMT Sunday), the Russian side announces an Easter truce,” Putin said in televised comments during a meeting with the Russian chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov.
Zelensky responded by saying Ukraine would follow suit, and proposed extending the truce beyond Sunday. But the Ukrainian leader also accused Russia of having already broken its promises.
Air-raid sirens sounded in Kyiv and several other regions on Saturday evening.
“Russian assault operations continue on several frontline sectors, and Russian artillery fire has not subsided,” Zelensky said.
Putin had said the truce for the Easter holiday celebrated on Sunday was motivated by “humanitarian reasons.”
While he expected Ukraine to comply, he said that Russian troops “must be ready to resist possible breaches of the truce and provocations by the enemy.”
Zelensky in a social media post wrote: “If Russia is now suddenly ready to truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act accordingly — mirroring Russia’s actions.”
He added: “If a complete ceasefire truly takes hold, Ukraine proposes extending it beyond the Easter day of April 20.”
He proposed that “30 days could give peace a chance,” while pointing out that Putin had earlier rejected a proposed 30-day full and unconditional ceasefire.
“The fighting is ongoing, and Russian attacks continue,” Ukraine’s military command, the Chief of Staff, reported Saturday evening.
“In some areas on the frontline, Russian artillery continues to be heard, despite the promise of silence from the Russian leader. Russian drones are being used. It is quieter in some areas.”
Soldiers in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk close to the front line earlier greeted the truce announcement with skepticism.
Putin “might do it to give some hope or to show his humanity,” said Dmitry, a 40-year-old soldier. “But either way, of course, we don’t trust (Russia).”
Putin said the latest truce proposal would show “how sincere is the Kyiv’s regime’s readiness, its desire and ability to observe agreements and participate in a process of peace talks.”
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.
Previous attempts at holding ceasefires for Easter in April 2022 and Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 were not implemented after both sides failed to agree on them.
“For millions of Ukrainians, Easter is one of the most important holidays. And millions of Ukrainians will go to church,” said Zelensky in his evening address.
“Over the years of this full-scale war, Russian attacks have destroyed or damaged more than 600 churches, prayer houses and places of worship.”
In Kramatorsk, one soldier, Vladislav, 22, said: “I feel like it’s going to start again after a while, and it’s going to go on and on.”
On the streets of Moscow, Yevgeny Pavlov, 58, said he did not think Russia should give Ukraine a breather.
“There is no need to give them respite. If we press, it means we should press to the end,” he told AFP.
Earlier Saturday, Ukraine and Russia said they had each returned 246 soldiers being held as prisoners of war in a swap mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
Zelensky said the total number of returned POWs now stood at 4,552.
The UAE’s foreign ministry said 31 wounded Ukrainians and 15 wounded Russians were also exchanged.
The UAE said it was committed to “finding a peaceful solution” to the conflict and “mitigating the humanitarian impacts.”
Russia said it had retaken the penultimate village still under Ukrainian control in its Kursk frontier region.
Kyiv had hoped to use its hold on the region as a bargaining chip in the talks.