On Monday, just a few miles behind the front lines with Ukraine, there were clear signs of fierce fighting in Russia’s southwestern Kursk, despite the Trump administration’s efforts to end the three-year war.
On Monday, an NBC News team saw three trucks carrying what appeared to be Russian soldiers’ bodies, as well as many more transporting injured people away from the heavily militarized region. Two other trucks carried a pair of American Bradley Fighting Vehicles, tank-like workhorses used to transport troops into battle, which were apparently abandoned by retreating Ukrainian forces.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper published a large photo of President Donald Trump, who announced late Sunday that negotiators in Washington and Moscow have begun discussing the division of assets between Russia and Ukraine in an effort to end the fighting.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to discuss “dividing up certain assets,” such as land and power plants.
“I think we have a lot of it already discussed by both sides — Ukraine and Russia,” Trump told reporters. “We want to see if we can bring the war to an end. Maybe we can, maybe not, but I believe we have a good chance.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump stated that he is “very much” looking forward to his call with Putin.
“Many elements of a Final Agreement have been agreed to, but much remains,” Trump wrote on Monday evening.
During a press briefing on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed the planned call between the two leaders but did not provide any additional information.
In the talks scheduled to begin on Tuesday, Trump will try to persuade Putin to support a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the US and Ukraine after their delegations met in Saudi Arabia last week. Putin stated that they needed to meet crucial demands made by the Kremlin.
The Russian leader and his officials have repeatedly stated that they want to cement their country’s land grabs during the war and prevent Kyiv from ever joining NATO.
Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko reiterated those goals, telling the Russian outlet Izvestia that the Kremlin will seek “iron-clad security guarantees” to ensure Kyiv’s exclusion from NATO in any peace deal, as well as Ukraine’s neutrality toward the bloc.
Pressure has been mounting on Russia to give in to Trump’s demands since Ukraine accepted the ceasefire proposal last week, though Grushko’s comments Monday made no mention of it.
Grushko also stated that Russia would oppose any troops in Ukraine as part of post-conflict guarantees, including NATO troops, despite Britain and France saying in recent weeks that they are willing to send forces to monitor any ceasefire.
“If [those soldiers] appear there, it means that they are deployed in the conflict zone with all the consequences for these contingents as parties to the conflict,” according to him.
According to Reuters, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas stated to reporters in Brussels on Monday that the Russians’ stipulations demonstrate that they “do not really want peace, actually, because they are presenting as conditions all their ultimate goals that they want to achieve from the war.”
A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also told reporters that a “significant number” of European countries were willing to provide peacekeeping troops in Ukraine as part of a peace deal, according to Reuters.
The comments came after heavy fighting in Kursk over the weekend, as Russian forces continued to gradually take territory in the region where Ukrainian forces had a foothold for the previous seven months.
The Ukrainian government sees Kursk as a valuable bargaining chip in any peace talks, but it has recently been forced to withdraw from parts of the region.
New images released by Russian government channels over the weekend showed an intensified military offensive by the country’s forces, bolstered by North Korean troops and the Trump administration’s suspension of military and intelligence assistance to Kyiv.
Even as Trump attempted to play peacemaker, telling Truth Social on Friday that he had asked the Kremlin not to attack Ukrainian troops in Kursk, Putin has encouraged his troops, appearing in military fatigues during a visit to the region last week.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, accused Putin of prolonging the conflict and ignoring US-led efforts to broker a cease-fire.
“The buildup of Russian forces indicates that Moscow intends to keep ignoring diplomacy,” Zelenskyy wrote on X on Saturday.
“We are ready to provide our partners with all the real information on the situation at the front, in the Kursk region and along our border,” he claimed.