Russia will agree to a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine, US President Donald Trump said ahead of a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, according to the White House press pool.

Trump was asked whether he thought Russia would agree to a mooted temporary ceasefire.

“They will agree,” the American leader replied.

Trump said ahead of his conversation with Putin that negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine are entering a “critical” stage.

"We're going to have a very important conversation [with Putin]. We've had conversations before, but we're coming to a very critical point now, and we want to end this whole thing with Russia and Ukraine. And I think Ukraine wants that. I know they want that. Everybody wants that," Trump told reporters.

Trump is willing to impose more sanctions on Russia if his phone call “does not go well,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary said in a briefing.

“It’s something the president has floated, and certainly he’s willing to do if necessary,” the White House press secretary said, The Telegraph reports.

The US has outlined two stages for ending the war in Ukraine and the terms of a peace agreement, ahead of a planned phone conversation, the second time they have talked since Trump returned to office. 

According to the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, the new conversation between Putin and Trump is an important step that sets the tone for the movement to revive relations between the countries, Vedomosti reports. 

According to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, this involves a ceasefire followed by a transition to negotiations. “Nobody is saying that the second part will be easy, but we can’t even begin until we complete the first,” Rubio stated. 

The major item on the agenda will be seeking the Kremlin’s consent to a 30-day pause in hostilities that has already been accepted by Bankova (Ukraine’s equivalent of the Kremlin).

Rubio explained ahead of the call that negotiating a peaceful settlement is challenging while hostilities are ongoing, which is why the US president is advocating for a ceasefire. “Then we will move to the second phase – negotiations on something more stable and permanent. It will be difficult. It will require significant effort and concessions from both sides, but it must happen,” the secretary of state said.

 Washington and Moscow have already begun discussing "dividing up certain assets" between Ukraine and Russia as part of a deal to end the conflict, according to Trump. The US side has suggested that regions with a high concentration of ethnic Russians, such as Donbas, might fall under Russian control in exchange for security guarantees for Ukraine.

Trump has said that swaps of land and power plants will be part of the conversation with Putin. Control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), the largest in Europe, will be one of the items on the agenda. Current the powerplant is in Russian hands and is in one of the four regions that Russia annexed in 2023.

ZNPP, one of Ukraine’s five working reactors, produced nearly a quarter of Ukraine´s electricity in the year before the war. After the US ran out of money for Ukraine at the start of 2024, Russia bombed and destroyed almost all of Ukraine’s non-nuclear power stations, making the surviving NPPs crucial for powering the economy.

The harsh minerals deal has also been paused for the meantime, until there is Russian consent to a 30-day ceasefire. 

"It´s a bad situation in Russia, and it´s a bad situation in Ukraine," Trump told reporters on March 17. "What´s happening in Ukraine is not good, but we´re going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace. And I think we´ll be able to do it."

In preparation for the Trump-Putin call, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff met last week with Putin in Moscow to discuss the proposal.

The White House is optimistic that peace is within reach even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy remains sceptical that Putin is doing much beyond paying lip service to Trump as Russian forces continue to pound his country.

Zelenskiy said in his daily video address on March 18 that he remains doubtful that Putin is ready for peace or is willing to agree to the proposed 30-day pause in the fighting. 

"Now, almost a week later, it´s clear to everyone in the world – even to those who refused to acknowledge the truth for the past three years – that it is Putin who continues to drag out this war," Zelenskiy said.

Trump against said that Ukraine is in a weak position and that “Putin has the cards,” but Ukraine does not. He also repeated the Kremlin’s claim that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in Kursk have been surrounded, a claim Zelenskiy denies is true.

"They´re surrounded by Russian soldiers, and I believe if it wasn´t for me they wouldn´t be here any longer," Trump said.

Nevertheless, the AFU has been withdrawing from Russia’s Kursk region and is being sent to shore up the faltering Donbas front line, which has come under extreme Russian military pressure as the diplomacy gets underway.

Zelenskiy last week asserted that the Kursk incursion had served its purpose and had drawn Armed Forces of Russia (AFR) away from the Donbas frontline.

In parallel to the US diplomacy, British and EU leaders are continuing their efforts to form a united front to support Ukraine in the event of a US withdrawal from the conflict.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer threatened to ramp up pressure on Russia and boost defence initiatives. He also said that the UK is prepared to send 10,000 peacekeepers to Ukraine on an undefined basis after active fighting ends. EU foreign policy chief and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas is due to meet British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Defence Secretary John Healey in London on March 18.

The talks will coordinate cooperation on Ukraine and discuss efforts to increase economic pressure on Russia, UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in a statement Reuters reports.

Kallas and Lammy will review efforts to boost European defence spending through 'innovative initiatives' and military readiness in support of Nato.

The EU attempted to push through a €40bn “voluntary” support package for Ukraine a day earlier, which is designed to dodge a Hungarian veto, but the proposal failed to garner sufficient support.