Trump and Putin will talk about land and power plants on truce call

DONALD Trump and Vladimir Putin are to hold talks today in a bid to end the war in Ukraine which could see the pair carve up territory and energy plants.

- Jonathan Walker

Speaking in advance of a historic phone call, president Trump said there was “a very good chance” of stopping the fighting.

Mr Trump added: “We'll be talking about land. It’s a lot different than it was before the war, as you know. We'll be talking about power plants, that’s a big question.

“But we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia.

“We're already talking about that, dividing up certain assets and they’ve been working on that.”

The comments suggest Ukraine could be forced to give up some of the territory seized by Russia.

But in a sign of the difficulties facing any peace deal, one Ukrainian politician said his country would never agree to this.

Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the foreign affairs committee, said: “It’s not negotiable. We will never agree to territorial concessions.”

Optimistic

However, the Trump administration last night sounded optimistic.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt would not get into details about the leaders’ scheduled call but added: “We've never been closer to a peace deal than we are in this moment.

“And the president is determined to get one done.”