Kyiv has agreed to the ceasefire, while its European allies have criticised Putin for not committing to an unconditional and immediate halt in fighting, with the UK accusing the Russian leader of “dragging his feet”.
“There is such a conversation being prepared for Tuesday,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday before the Trump-Putin call, without commenting on what the two leaders would discuss.
Trump has said the two would discuss “land” and power plants: an apparent reference to the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in south Ukraine.
Russia occupies swaths of southern and eastern Ukraine.
The US President previously spoke to Putin last month in a call that broke Western efforts to isolate the Russian leader as long as his forces keep up their Ukraine offensive.
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, met Putin last Thursday in Moscow to present the details of the joint ceasefire plan, which envisages a 30-day pause in hostilities.
Witkoff said he expected some sort of deal in the “coming weeks”.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reacted with anger to Putin’s statements, accusing him of wanting to prolong the fighting.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy warned Moscow wanted to “improve their situation on the battlefield” before agreeing to any ceasefire.
Moscow has been pressing ahead in several areas of the front for over a year.
On Monday, Russia claimed its forces had captured Stepove – a village in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region – although open-source battlefield maps showed it outside Moscow’s control.
Valentyna, a 62-year-old in the eastern town of Kostiantynivka where evacuations were under way with the Russians advancing, said “everybody is waiting for peace”.
She looked after the dogs of neighbours who left the frontline town but, like many elderly people, was reluctant to leave.
“Everyone hopes [for peace]”, she said. “People are waiting. People are tired.”
The Kremlin, meanwhile, was boasting of its forces ousting Ukrainian troops from Russia’s western Kursk region as a major success.
Moscow last week retook the main town that Ukraine seized in its summer 2024 incursion, Sudzha, and swaths of areas around it.
Russia has said it has moved several hundred civilians who were previously trapped in Kyiv-held areas.
Andrey Klimenko was one of them. He left his home in the village of Zamostye near Sudzha on Friday as Russian forces pushed to recapture land, and is now staying in a displacement centre.
“Planes were dropping bombs near my vegetable patch. I nearly died because of bombs, mortar fire and drones,” the 52-year-old said.
Ukraine has conceded it is in a difficult position in the region, but denies its troops are surrounded.
Zelenskyy replaced his army’s chief of general staff last week as Kyiv’s frontline troops continued to struggle.
After a brief lull in drone fire last week, both sides appeared to have stepped up attacks on Monday.
Ukrainian forces launched a drone attack on southern Russia, sparking a blaze at an oil refinery, while Moscow launched a barrage of nearly 200 drones against Ukraine.
Putin last week said he would back a ceasefire, but only if it led to “long-term peace and addresses the root causes of the crisis”.
Among Putin’s demands are that Ukraine never join the Nato military alliance, European peacekeepers not be deployed on Ukrainian territory, and Moscow be allowed to keep all the land it occupies.
Since Russia seized Crimea in 2014 and launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has control of about a fifth of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy has pushed back at Putin’s demands, saying the Russian leader does not want peace.
In the Kursk region, 35-year-old displaced resident Yekaterina Panova said she hoped Trump could mediate.
“We really want America to somehow influence Russia’s friendship with Ukraine,” she said.
“Both Russians and Ukrainians are Slavs. It’s just some kind of fratricide going on.”
– Agence France-Presse
