U.S. President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have both confirmed that they will speak Tuesday to try to negotiate an end to hostilities, which began in 2014 with Russia's annexation of Crimea and escalated significantly in 2022 when the Russian Federation launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Trump has vowed to bring the war to an end. Speaking to reporters on Monday, the president said much had been accomplished over the weekend:

🚨 President Trump will speak with Vladimir Putin *TOMORROW.*

"I'll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday... I want to see if we can bring that war to an end." pic.twitter.com/WFHTqPKxHA

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 17, 2025

We learned a lot. We're doing pretty well I think with Russia; I'll see if we have something to announce maybe by Tuesday. I'll be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work's been done over the weekend. We want to see if we can bring that war to an end. Maybe we can, maybe we can't, but I think we have a very good chance.

I think we'll be talking about land. There's a lot of land. It's a lot different than it was before the wars, as you know. And we'll be talking about land, we'll be talking about power plants, because I think that's a big question, but I think we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides.

We're already talking about... dividing up certain assets, and they've been working on them.

There is much still to be worked out:

Although Russia failed in its initial goal to topple Ukraine with its invasion three years ago, it still controls large swaths of the country.

Trump said land and power plants are part of the conversation around bringing the war to a close.

“We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants,” he said, a process he described as “dividing up certain assets.”

Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff recently visited Moscow last week to advance negotiations.

Russia illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions after launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east and the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the southeast of the country — but doesn’t fully control any of the four. Last year, Putin listed Kyiv’s withdrawal of troops from all four regions as one of the demands for peace.

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The Kremlin confirmed the talks will take place but were tight-lipped about their expectations:

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday morning confirmed the plans for the two leaders to speak on Tuesday, but declined to give details, saying that “we never get ahead of events” and “the content of conversations between two presidents are not subject to any prior discussion.” 

On Sunday, Trump’s special envoy expressed hope that peace can be achieved in a matter of weeks:

"The president uses the timeframe weeks, and I don't disagree with him. I am really hopeful that we're going to see some real progress here," U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said on CNN on Sunday. "Nobody expected progress this fast. This is a highly, very complicated situation, and yet we're bridging the gap between two sides. So, lots of things that remain to be discussed, but I think the two presidents are going to have a really good and positive discussion this week." 

Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said this morning that he expects President Trump and President Putin to communicate by phone this week.
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— Paul Villarreal (AKA Vince Manfeld) (@AureliusStoic1) March 16, 2025

Putin is as cold and Machiavellian as they come, so achieving peace will not be easy. If Trump is able to negotiate an end to hostilities, it would be an historic achievement indeed.