Trump plans to talk with Putin on March 18

United States President Donald Trump said he plans to speak by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 18.

Trump is trying to broker a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, which has now entered its fourth year.

"I'll be speaking with President Putin on Tuesday. A lot of work was done over the weekend," Trump told reporters on March 16, during a flight to Washington from his Florida resort.

"We want to see if we can end this war. Maybe we can, maybe we can't, but I think we have a very good chance," Trump said.

When asked about possible concessions required to secure a ceasefire, Trump said "we'll talk about land, we'll talk about power plants."

"I think a lot has been discussed by both sides, Ukraine and Russia. We are already discussing, sharing certain assets," Trump said.

There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.

Trump - during the first months of his second term - has made it a priority to reach a ceasefire agreement for the war in Ukraine.

Following talks in Saudi Arabia, Ukrainian and American officials announced on March 11 that Kiev had agreed to a 30-day ceasefire.

Moscow, so far, has reacted coolly to the idea.

Putin has also proposed additional conditions, including freezing Kiev's supplies of weapons from the US.

Meanwhile, a senior Russian official has said that Moscow will insist that Ukraine not be allowed to join NATO and remain "neutral" in any peace deal - conditions that Kiev has long rejected.

Putin said on March 14 that any agreement must lead to long-term peace and address the "root" causes of the war - an apparent reference to NATO expansion and other developments that he claims have put Russia's security at risk.

In comments published on March 17, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko told the Russian newspaper Izvestia that "we will demand that ironclad security guarantees be made part of this agreement."

"Part of these guarantees should be Ukraine's neutral status, the refusal of NATO countries to admit it into the alliance," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has often said that, in order to accept a peace deal, Kiev must have security guarantees from Western partners, including eventual membership in NATO.

"I have insisted [on Ukraine's membership in] NATO, but you know what the answers have been," he said in February, adding that the path to joining the Western military alliance continues to be obstructed.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview with CBS on March 16 that the final peace agreement would "involve a lot of work, concessions from both Russia and Ukraine."

He added that such talks will hardly begin "as long as they shoot at each other."/ REL