Donald Trump is to hold talks with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday as he steps up his efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
The US president said “a lot of work’s been done over the weekend” in an effort to persuade the Russian leader to agree to a ceasefire.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week signed up to Trump’s proposal of a 30-day truce - but Putin said the “root causes” of the conflict would need to be addressed first.
That overlooked the fact that the war only started because he ordered his troops to invade Ukraine more than three years ago.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday evening, Trump said: “We will see if we have something to announce maybe by Tuesday. I will be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday.
“A lot of work’s been done over the weekend. We want to see if we can bring that war to an end.”
Putin had initially planned to take over Ukraine within days of the invasion in February 2022, but instead has become bogged down in a brutal conflict which has seen Russia suffer more than 500,000 casualties.
Trump said he and Putin “will be talking about land”, an apparent reference to the territory which Russia has gained in Ukraine since the war began.
“We have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia,” he said. “We are already talking about that, dividing up certain assets.”
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer is trying to pull together a “coalition of the willing” of nations prepared to provide Ukraine with security guarantees in the event of a ceasefire.
The prime minister held a virtual meeting on Saturday with the leaders of 26 other nations, plus representatives from the EU and Nato.
He said there had been “new commitments” offered and planning would now move into an “operational phase”.
But it remains unclear which nations have committed troops to a peacekeeping operation, while several have suggested such talks are premature given the lack of a ceasefire.
Putin is likely to object to any agreement that involves European or Nato troops being stationed in Ukraine, although Zelensky sees this as essential to deterring future Russian aggression.