Trump and Putin expected to speak about Ukraine this week

US President Donald Trump is expected to speak to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this week, amid efforts to end the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Mr Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said he was hopeful of real progress to end the three-year war.

"I expect that there will be a call with both presidents this week, and we're also continuing to engage and have conversation with the Ukrainians," he said, adding that he thought the talk between Mr Trump and Mr Putin would be "really good and positive."

Speaking to CNN, Mr Witkoff said that although the situation on the ground was highly complicated, "We're bridging the gap between two sides."

It comes after Ukraine's allies agreed to exert pressure on Russia.

Despite recent tensions between Mr Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine has agreed in principle to a US-brokered 30-day unconditional ceasefire - if Russia halts its attacks in eastern Ukraine.

However Mr Putin has not agreed to any truce, instead setting conditions that were beyond what was called for in the US agreement with Ukraine.

The ceasefire proposal by Mr Trump's team comes as Russia has momentum in many areas of the front in Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a call, "discussed next steps", State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.

Since returning to the White House in January, Mr Trump has stressed his desire to end the three-year-old conflict, and has made a spectacular rapprochement with his Russian counterpart.

The statement gave no details on when the next round of US-Russia talks hosted by Saudi Arabia would begin.

However, Mr Rubio and Mr Lavrov also "agreed to continue working towards restoring communication between the United States and Russia," Ms Bruce added.

'Moment of truth'

The call came after a virtual summit hosted by the UK yesterday.

At those talks, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told some 26 fellow leaders that they should focus on how to strengthen Ukraine, protect any ceasefire and keep up the pressure on Russia.

Mr Starmer said the Russian president would eventually have to "come to the table".

"Putin is trying to delay - saying there must be a painstaking study before a ceasefire can take place," he added.

Military leaders from about 30 countries met in Paris on 11 March to discuss plans for a peacekeeping force in Ukraine, and will meet again Thursday in Britain.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for unified action to ensure Russia accepts the proposed ceasefire.

"This is a moment of truth because if Russia does not sincerely commit to peace, President Trump will toughen sanctions and retaliation, and so that will completely change the dynamic," Mr Macron told French regional papers in an interview.

"Russia must respond clearly and the pressure must be clear, in conjunction with the United States, to obtain this ceasefire," he said in a statement to journalists.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Russia had to show "it is willing to support a ceasefire leading to a just and lasting peace".

However, Mr Zelensky warned that Russia wanted to achieve a "stronger position" militarily ahead of any ceasefire, more than three years since it invaded Ukraine.

"They want to improve their situation on the battlefield," Mr Zelensky told journalists in Ukraine.

Troops

Mr Starmer and Mr Macron have said they are willing to put British and French troops on the ground in Ukraine, but it is not clear if other countries are keen on doing the same.

Russia has rejected the idea of foreign soldiers acting as peacekeepers in Ukraine.

However, Mr Macron said: "If Ukraine asks allied forces to be on its territory, it is not up to Russia to accept or not."

The UK prime minister has said he welcomes any offer of support for the coalition, raising the prospect that some countries could contribute logistics or surveillance.

Mr Trump has appointed Keith Kellogg as special envoy to Ukraine.

A former national security advisor during the US president's first term, Mr Kellogg had previously been described as a special envoy for both Ukraine and Russia.

But he was excluded from recent talks in Saudi Arabia on ending the war, with NBC News in the United States citing a senior Russian official who said that Mr Putin considered him too pro-Ukraine.

Read more: Putin will have to 'come to table' for truce - Starmer

Fighting continues, and Russia has regained swathes of land this week in the Kursk border region.

In Russia, three civilians were injured last night when Ukrainian drones struck in the town of Gubkin and the village of Dolgoe in the Belgorod region, officials said on Telegram.

On the Ukrainian side, a residential building caught fire and a house was damaged yesterday evening in the northern region of Chernihiv, authorities said.

Russia battled to drive the last Ukrainian soldiers from western Russia, Russian officials said, after a seven-month incursion by Ukraine that aimed to distract Moscow's forces, gain a bargaining chip and rile President Putin.

In one of the most striking battles of the three-year-old Ukraine war, Ukrainian forces smashed their way across Russia's western border in Kursk last August, marking the biggest attack on sovereign Russian territory since the Nazi invasion of 1941.

But a lightning offensive this month has reduced the area under Ukrainian control to about 110 square km, down from the more than 1,368 square km claimed by Kyiv last year, according to open source maps.

Battlefield maps from both Ukraine and Russia showed two joined pockets of Ukrainian forces on the Russian side of the border in Kursk. Russia said it was clearing large numbers of mines in the area.

Putin has accused Ukrainian troops of carrying out crimes against civilians in Kursk, something Kyiv denies.

Ukraine says as many as 11,000 North Korean troops are fighting with Russia in Kursk, though Russia and North Korea have refused to give any details on North Korean troops there.

The fierce battle for the Kursk region has framed efforts by Mr Trump to end what he says is a "bloodbath" war that could escalate into World War Three.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has left hundreds of thousands of people dead and injured, displaced millions, reduced towns to rubble and triggered the sharpest confrontation for decades between Moscow and the West.

US intelligence estimates say more than 100,000 Russian troops have been killed or injured, according to a 2023 assessment, while the economy has been heavily distorted by record defence spending and the toughest Western sanctions ever imposed.

Ukraine has also seen more than 100,000 troops killed or injured, according to leaked US intelligence estimates.