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Activists carry a makeshift coffin draped with the Ukraine flag as they march in the "Ukraine will never surrender" protest near US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Florida, on March 14, 2025. [AFP]
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump will speak by phone today, as one US official expressed hope the two could agree on a Ukraine ceasefire within weeks.
Trump said earlier that "a lot of work" had been done between the United States and Russia on settling the three-year Ukraine conflict, and that there was a "very good chance" hostilities would end.
Putin said last week he agreed with the idea of a ceasefire but warned he had "serious questions" about how it would be implemented that he wanted to discuss with Trump.
Kyiv has agreed to the ceasefire, while its European allies have criticised Putin for not committing to an unconditional and immediate halt in fighting, with the UK accusing the Russian leader of "dragging his feet".
"There is such a conversation being prepared for Tuesday," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters including AFP on Monday, ahead of the Trump-Putin call, without commenting on what the two leaders would discuss.
Trump has said the two would discuss "land" and power plants: an apparent reference to the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in south Ukraine.
Russia occupies swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine.
The US president last spoke to Putin last month in a call that broke Western efforts to isolate the Russian leader as long as his forces keep up their Ukraine offensive.
Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin last Thursday in Moscow to present the details of the joint ceasefire plan, which envisages a 30-day pause in hostilities.
Witkoff told CNN he expected some sort of deal in the "coming weeks".
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky has reacted with anger to Putin's statements, accusing him of wanting to prolong the fighting.
On Saturday, Zelensky warned that Moscow wanted to first "improve their situation on the battlefield" before agreeing to any ceasefire.
'Waiting for peace'
Moscow has been pressing ahead in several areas of the front for over a year.
On Monday, Russia claimed its forces had captured Stepove -- a village in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region -- although open-source battlefield maps showed it outside Moscow's control.
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Valentyna, a 62-year-old in the eastern town of Kostiantynivka, where evacuations were underway with the Russians advancing, said "everybody is waiting for peace."
She looked after the dogs of neighbours who left the frontline town but, like many elderly people, was reluctant to leave.
"Everyone hopes (for peace)", she told AFP. "People are waiting. People are tired."
The Kremlin, meanwhile, was boasting of its forces ousting Ukrainian troops from Russia's western Kursk region as a major success.
Moscow last week retook the main town that Ukraine seized in its summer 2024 incursion, Sudzha, and swathes of areas around it.
Russia has said it has moved several hundred civilians who were previously trapped in Kyiv-held areas.
'I nearly died'
Andrey Klimenko was one of them. He spoke to AFP after leaving his home in the village of Zamostye, outside Sudzha, on Friday as Russian forces pushed to recapture land, and is now staying in a displacement centre.
"Planes were dropping bombs near my vegetable patch. I nearly died because of bombs, mortar fire and drones," the 52-year-old told AFP.
Ukraine has conceded it is in a difficult position in the region but denies its troops are surrounded.
Zelensky replaced his army's chief of general staff last week as Kyiv's front-line troops continued to struggle.
After a brief lull in drone fire last week, both sides appeared to have stepped up attacks on Monday.
Ukrainian forces launched a drone attack on southern Russia, sparking a blaze at an oil refinery, while Moscow launched a barrage of nearly 200 drones against Ukraine.
Russians see hope in Trump
Putin last week said he would back a ceasefire but only if it led to "long-term peace and addresses the root causes of the crisis".
Among Putin's demands are that Ukraine never joins the NATO military alliance, that European peacekeepers not be deployed on Ukrainian territory and that Moscow be allowed to keep all the land it currently occupies.
Since Russia seized Crimea in 2014 and launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow now controls around a fifth of Ukraine.
Zelensky has pushed back at Putin's demands, saying the Russian leader does not really want peace.
In the Kursk region, 35-year-old displaced resident Yekaterina Panova said she was hopeful Trump could mediate.
"We really want America to somehow influence Russia's friendship with Ukraine," she told AFP.
"Both Russians and Ukrainians are Slavs. It's just some kind of fratricide going on."
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The Standard Group Plc is a
multi-media organization with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper
print operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The
Standard Group is recognized as a leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key
influence in matters of national and international interest.
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