OAN Staff James Meyers
8:32 AM – Monday, March 17, 2025
President Donald Trump said he will be speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to push for an end to the war in Ukraine.
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“We’re doing pretty well, I think, with Russia,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening. “See if we have something to announce, maybe Tuesday.”
Trump also said “a lot of work’s been done over the weekend.”
“We want to see if we can bring that war to an end.”
Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also confirmed the call between leaders for Tuesday, but did not give details to not “get ahead of events,” according to The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, the scheduled call comes a week after delegates from the U.S. and Ukraine met in Saudi Arabia and announced a proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. Putin did accept the idea for a ceasefire in principle, he did not commit to a deal and said more discussions were needed.
“The idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it,” Putin said during a news conference in Moscow last week. “But there are issues that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to discuss it with our American colleagues and partners.”
Additionally, President Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, met with Putin last week.
“We made a lot of progress in that meeting,” Witkoff said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” Sunday. “We talked about a lot of specifics, and I point to the large gap that existed between Ukraine and Russia prior to the inauguration, and where we are today. We have narrowed the issues between both of these parties, making a lot of progress, in my opinion.”
Witkoff also stated that he expected the call between President Trump and Putin to be productive.
“I think this is going to be a very positive and constructive call between the two men, between the two presidents,” Witkoff told Brennan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Trump at the White House last month, which resulted in Zelensky leaving Washington with nothing happening after Trump told Zelensky he has nothing to negotiate with.
Since the fallout, Zelensky has looked to repair ties, as the U.S. and Ukraine have agreed to a 30-day ceasefire plan.
Meanwhile, Russia has not yet stated if they will accept the deal, but Witkoff said his discussions were “positive.”
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