Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accepted a proposed ceasefire plan, but Russia has yet to commit. U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to speak this week regarding the proposal, according to special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“The two presidents are going to have a very positive discussion this week,” Witkoff told CNN on Sunday. Meanwhile, Moscow confirmed that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss “concrete aspects of implementing agreements” from a U.S.-Russia summit held in Saudi Arabia last month.
The February summit in Riyadh marked the first high-level meeting between the U.S. and Russia since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry stated that Lavrov and Rubio agreed to remain in contact, though it did not mention the U.S.-proposed ceasefire. However, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the two diplomats had discussed "the next steps" on Ukraine and had committed to improving U.S.-Russia communication.
The diplomatic exchanges come as Washington pushes for an immediate 30-day ceasefire following negotiations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. While Zelenskyy has accepted the plan, Putin remains noncommittal. Although he acknowledged the proposal “in principle,” he also raised “serious concerns” from Russia’s perspective.
Zelenskyy accused Moscow of stalling, suggesting that Russia aims to strengthen its battlefield position before agreeing to a ceasefire. He also accused Putin of misleading the world about the feasibility of a truce, stating, “Putin is lying when he claims a ceasefire is too complicated.”
Putin, for his part, has expressed concerns that the ceasefire primarily benefits Ukraine. He claims that Russian forces are advancing in multiple areas and wants to discuss Moscow’s reservations with Trump in an upcoming call.
Russia, which continues to hold large portions of southern and eastern Ukraine, has made recent territorial gains, including pushing Ukrainian forces out of parts of the Kursk region. Kyiv had hoped to retain control over Russian border areas as potential leverage in future negotiations.
Amid these developments, Ukraine reported that a Russian drone attack on Sunday killed one person in the city of Izyum, Kharkiv region. Izyum had initially fallen to Russia at the start of the invasion but was later retaken by Ukrainian forces.
The Trump administration reached a preliminary agreement with Ukraine last week on a 30-day ceasefire plan during talks in Saudi Arabia, yet Putin has refused to accept its terms.
Witkoff told CNN that it was “a little premature” to discuss whether the U.S. would be required to recognize Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory—a condition Putin is likely demanding to justify his 2022 invasion.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials have suggested that Kyiv may need to make territorial concessions to secure a ceasefire. Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from a key logistics hub in the Russian-controlled Kursk region, with Russia now claiming full control of the town.
Michael Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, indicated on Sunday that Ukraine might have to cede parts of its eastern territory and abandon aspirations of joining NATO in order to reach a settlement.
Zelenskyy, however, has warned that Putin is preparing for a renewed ground invasion of Ukraine’s Sumy region, which borders Kursk.
Separately, Russian state media reported on Sunday that an explosion at an oil refinery in Ryazan killed one worker and injured three others. The refinery, owned by Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer, has been targeted multiple times by Ukrainian drones. In February, a drone attack forced it to suspend operations.
The Ryazan refinery processes 262,000 barrels of oil per day, accounting for nearly 5% of Russia’s total refining capacity in 2024.
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