US officials expressed optimism on Sunday that a ceasefire deal between Ukraine and Russia could be reached within “weeks,” as President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to discuss a possible truce.
The United States recently proposed a halt in fighting in the three-year conflict after talks in Saudi Arabia, which Kyiv has accepted. Washington and its European allies are now pressing Moscow to follow suit.
Putin, however, has yet to give a definitive response, instead outlining various conditions and raising “serious questions” about the proposal.
Trump’s envoy for the conflict, Steve Witkoff, who recently held hours-long discussions with Putin, told CNN that he believes “the two presidents are going to have an excellent and positive discussion this week.”
Trump, he added, “really expects there to be some sort of deal in the coming weeks, maybe, and I believe that’s the case.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, remains cautious, accusing the Kremlin of stalling to improve its battlefield position before agreeing to any ceasefire.
Moscow confirmed that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to discuss “concrete aspects of the implementation of understandings” from a US-Russia summit in Saudi Arabia last month. That February meeting in Riyadh marked the first high-level dialogue between Washington and Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“Sergei Lavrov and Marco Rubio agreed to remain in contact,” the Russian foreign ministry stated, though it made no mention of the ceasefire proposal.
US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce noted that Rubio and Lavrov had “discussed the next steps” on Ukraine and agreed to work toward restoring communication between their countries.
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The Lavrov-Rubio call came hours after the UK hosted a virtual summit on Ukraine, during which Prime Minister Keir Starmer criticized Putin for “dragging his feet” on the ceasefire.
“The ‘yes, but’ from Russia is not good enough,” Starmer said, demanding an end to “barbaric attacks on Ukraine once and for all.”
On Sunday, Kyiv reported that Moscow had launched 90 Iranian-made Shahed drones into nine Ukrainian regions.
Earlier this week, Putin stated that the ceasefire initiative would primarily benefit Ukraine, as Russian forces were “advancing” in multiple areas. He reiterated concerns about the proposal and sought a phone discussion with Trump to address Moscow’s conditions.
Zelensky, in turn, accused Putin of “lying about how a ceasefire is supposedly too complicated” and suggested that Moscow was intentionally prolonging the conflict.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials reported that a Russian drone strike on Sunday killed one person in the city of Izyum, located in the Kharkiv region. The area had previously fallen to Russian forces at the start of the invasion but was later reclaimed by Kyiv.
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