US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will be having a phone call on Tuesday (March 18) to discuss a ceasefire on Ukraine war. Speaking to reporters while flying from Florida to Washington on Air Force One on Sunday evening, the US president said "a lot of work’s been done over the weekend" and in the Tuesday discussions, he would "see" if the war (ongoing for over three years now) could be brought to an end. 

Advertisment

Trump hinted that there is a "very good chance" that he would have "something to announce". 

Also read: Trump and Putin to have a phone call on Tuesday to 'bring that war to an end'

Putin 'dragging his feet'

Advertisment

Last week, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to a 30-day ceasefire after talks with US officials in Jeddah but Putin simply rejected it. 

The Russian president said he would agree to end the war but warned he had "serious questions" about how the ceasefire would be implemented. He had said he wanted to discuss this with Trump. 

"There is such a conversation being prepared for Tuesday," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 

Advertisment

Also read: ‘Positive discussion this week’: Trump set for talks with Putin on ending Ukraine war, Witkoff says

Putin's rejection of the ceasefire drew criticism Ukraine, accusing him of "dragging his feet" rather than ending the conflict. 

Zelensky even said that Putin does not want to end the war. 

'Dividing up certain assets'

Trump said on Sunday that in the scheduled call with Putin, he would discuss to divide some "assets" between the two nations. 

“We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants,” Trump said. 

"I think we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia. We are already talking about that, dividing up certain assets," he said.  

This was possibly in the context of Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in south Ukraine.

Also read: 'A combat guy': Zelensky replaces army chief of general staff to 'increase efficiency of management'

However, Zelensky has consistently rejected the idea of giving up land, and some European leaders have expressed concerns that making such concessions would effectively reward Russia for its invasion.

Europe's largest nuclear power plant

The power plant at the centre of discussion is Europe's largest nuclear plant. It has six units with a capacity of 1 gigawatt each. It was shut down in 2022 after some hostilities  near it. Now, the units are maintained with power from Ukraine. 

Ukraine has claimed the real state of the power plant is unknown, but if the Russia occupies it, Ukraine would face "serious disaster". 

Apart from the power plant, Ukraine has lost generation capacity from gas-fired, coal-fired and hydroelectric plants. 

Also read: ‘Putin is lying to everyone’: Zelensky demands ‘strong pressure’ on Russia, blasts Moscow’s ‘delaying tactics’

Trump's eye on gas storage facilities

A large part of Europe's underground gas storage facilities are located in Ukraine. The country has even offered various European and American companies access to utilise one-third of the storage facilities to store their gas. 

Now, these facilities are in focus, especially after Trump came back to power. 

Putin, Trump want 'land expansion' 

Monica Duffy Toft, a professor of international politics at Tufts University, wrote in Foreign Affairs recently, “Today’s geopolitical landscape particularly resembles the close of World War II” because “major powers are seeking to negotiate a new global order primarily with each other, much as Allied leaders did when they redrew the world map” at Yalta.

In an interview with The New York Times, Toft said that land expansion “is what Putin wants, and it’s obviously what Trump wants — just look at Greenland and Panama and Canada.”

Also read: Trump says he instructed Elon Musk to bring ‘abandoned’ astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore back

“This is what these leaders think they need to do to make their countries great again," she added. 

In a nutshell, she said, there are big chances that Putin will get what he wants.

And that raises questions in the context China's territorial ambitions, according to he

"What will happen if Xi Jinping decides he wants to take Taiwan?" she asked.

(With inputs from agencies)