Washington, 18 Mar

The White House says President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have begun a highly anticipated call as the US administration looks to persuade the Russian leader to sign-off on a 30-day ceasefire proposal as a possible pathway to end the war.

Tuesday's call comes after Ukrainian officials last week agreed to the American proposal during talks in Saudi Arabia led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, remains sceptical that Putin is ready for peace as Russian forces continue to pound Ukraine.

Trump, before the call, said he expected to discuss with Putin land and power plants that have been seized during the grinding three-year war.

The White House expressed optimism in advance that peace is within reach even as Zelenskyy remains sceptical that Putin is doing much beyond paying lip service to Trump as Russian forces continue to pound his country.

The engagement is just the latest turn in dramatically shifting US-Russia relations as Trump made quickly ending the conflict a top priority — even at the expense of straining ties with longtime American allies who want Putin to pay a price for the invasion.

“It's a bad situation in Russia, and it's a bad situation in Ukraine,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “What's happening in Ukraine is not good, but we're going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace. And I think we'll be able to do it.”

In preparation for the Trump-Putin call, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff met last week with Putin in Moscow to discuss the proposal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had persuaded senior Ukrainian officials during talks in Saudi Arabia to agree to the ceasefire framework.

The US president said Washington and Moscow have already begun discussing “dividing up certain assets" between Ukraine and Russia as part of a deal to end the conflict.

Trump, who during his campaign pledged to quickly end the war, has at moments boasted of his relationship with Putin and blamed Ukraine for Russia's unprovoked invasion, all while accusing Zelenskyy of unnecessarily prolonging the biggest land war in Europe since World War II.

Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that Trump and Putin will discuss the war in Ukraine but added that there are also a “large number of questions" regarding normalising US-Russia relations.

Trump has said that control of land and power plants will be part of the conversation, which comes on the anniversary of Russia annexing Ukraine's Crimean peninsula 11 years ago. That bold land grab by Russia set the stage for Russia to invade its neighbor in 2022.

Witkoff and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that US and Russian officials have discussed the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe's largest — in southern Ukraine.

The plant has been caught in the crossfire since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in 2022 and seized the facility shortly after. The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly expressed alarm about it, fuelling fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe.

The plant is a significant asset, producing nearly a quarter of Ukraine's electricity in the year before the war.

“I can say we are on the 10th yard line of peace,” Leavitt said. “And we've never been closer to a peace deal than we are in this moment. And the president, as you know, is determined to get one done.”

But Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, questioned whether Putin is ready to end the war or will hold out for potential further concessions as Trump grows impatient.

After a disastrous 28 February White House meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump temporarily cut off some military intelligence-sharing and aid to Ukraine. It was restored after the Ukrainians last week signed off on the Trump administration's 30-day ceasefire proposal.

“The US has been consistently offering in some form preemptive concessions that have been weakening the American and Ukrainian negotiating position," Bowman said. “I think there's a real danger here that the administration's approach is boiling down to sticks for Ukraine and carrots for Putin.”

Zelenskyy in his nightly video address on Monday made clear he remains doubtful that Putin is ready for peace.

"Now, almost a week later, it's clear to everyone in the world — even to those who refused to acknowledge the truth for the past three years — that it is Putin who continues to drag out this war," Zelenskyy said.

In his dealings with Zelenskyy and Putin, Trump has frequently focused on who has the leverage. Putin has “the cards” and Zelenskyy does not, Trump has said repeatedly.

Trump, who has long shown admiration for Putin, has also made clear he'd like to see the US-Russia relationship return to a more normal footing.

The president during his recent contentious meeting with Zelenskyy grumbled that “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me," a reference to the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in which he beat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump on Monday again underscored his view that Ukraine is not in a strong negotiating position. He said Russian forces have “surrounded” Ukrainian troops in Russia's Kursk region — amplifying an assertion made by Russian officials that's been disputed by Zelenskyy.

Ukraine's army stunned Russia in August last year by attacking across the border and taking control of an estimated 1,300 square kilometres of land. But Ukraine's forces are now in retreat and it has all but lost a valuable bargaining chip, as momentum builds for a ceasefire with Russia.

Zelenskyy has acknowledged that the Ukrainians are on their back foot while disputing Russian claims that his troops are encircled in Kursk.

Trump suggested that he's taken unspecified action that has kept Russia from slaughtering Ukrainian troops in Kursk.

“They're surrounded by Russian soldiers, and I believe if it wasn't for me they wouldn't be here any longer,” Trump said.

Leavitt is one of three Trump administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First- and Fifth-Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.