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This suggests both Ukraine and Russia will have negotiators in the same building but in different rooms with the US moving between both (6.5mins in)…

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/gen-keith-kellog-praises-president-trumps-efforts-end-119992174

Looks like Russia does care about sanctions after all…

Could be good for more balanced negotiations.

"Officials from the United States told their European colleagues that the EU will have to take part in any peace agreement on Ukraine due to the fact that Russia wants to relax the sanctions imposed by the bloc as part of the deal," the agency writes with reference to people familiar with the situation.

https://www.interfax.ru/world/1015393

Call still ongoing as of 15 mins ago according to this:

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/liveblog/2025/3/18/russia-ukraine-war-live-trump-putin-call-to-tackle-normalisation-of-ties

From Tass:

Putin and Trump will talk at about 16-18 Moscow time

https://tass.ru/politika/23428951

Hopefully Putin doesn’t take up too much of the 2hrs talking about Prince Rurik and they get something done this afternoon.

You’d think that the nuts and bolts have already been discussed at a lower level but let’s see.

Hopefully this call happens and leads to something positive…

IN THE WORLD

16:27, march 16, 2025

Whitkoff said that the conversation between Trump and Putin could take place next week

Moscow. March 16. INTERFAX.RU - U.S. President Donald Trump's conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin may take place next week, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff said on CNN on Sunday.

"Trump will probably talk to Putin this week," he said.

According to Witkoff, his meeting with Putin, which took place earlier this week, was positive: "The two sides have become closer than they were before."

"I think President Putin wants an end to this (bloodshed)," the U.S. Special Representative said.

https://www.interfax.ru/world/1013921

US is apparently considering working with Gazprom:

09:54, march 14, 2025

Bloomberg reported on the early stage of U.S. negotiations on cooperation with Gazprom

Moscow. March 14. INTERFAX.RU - The United States is exploring the possibilities of cooperation with Gazprom in global projects, which can potentially pave the way for closer ties with Russia and a peace agreement on Ukraine, Bloomberg reports, citing Russian and European officials.

According to them, the negotiations are at an early stage and may include a discussion of cooperation on energy projects in Europe and Asia. According to European experts, representatives of the United States and Russia "had preliminary contacts on this issue, but (...) it is not clear who is negotiating and whether the Trump administration is directly involved," the agency notes.

On March 13, President Vladimir Putin spoke about potential cooperation between the United States and Russia in the field of energy, which can pave the way for the restoration of supplies to Europe. U.S. President Donald Trump also spoke about interest in cooperation.

According to some sources, U.S. and Gazprom's energy initiatives may cover Europe and Asia and "may meet the broader U.S. desire to weaken Russia's ties with China and Iran," which would also meet Trump's desire to use business opportunities that may arise as a result of a peace agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine.

Sources told Bloomberg that Gazprom, for its part, is interested in the United States helping to restart the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which was stopped after a sabotage attack in 2022.

https://www.interfax.ru/world/1013616?utm_source=top

Russia clearly wants it’s own input. Still need to wait to see what happens after the meeting.

"The document, I think, is hasty. We will have to work, think and take into account our position too. Only the Ukrainian approach is set out there," Ushakov told journalists, commenting on the proposal for a truce in Ukraine.

Ushakov previously stressed that the proposal for a 30-day truce in the Ukrainian conflict gives nothing to Russia and is only an opportunity for Ukraine to regroup its forces.

https://tass.ru/politika/23388753

Something you’ve eaten B1ll?

Happening on March 26-27:

VI International Arctic Forum "Arctic - Territory of Dialogue

Being held in Murmansk for the first time, forum about international investment in Artic projects.

Be interesting to see if they have a good amount of visitors and if they publicise from which countries the visitors are from.

https://invest.nashsever51.ru/list_item/news/andrey-chibis-anonsiroval-programmy-maf-arktika-territoriia-dialoga-i-oboznachil-ego-glavnye-temy

Couple of Ukrainian sources on the minerals deal but I guess will have to wait and see what happens:

https://unn.ua/en/amp/the-agreement-on-minerals-will-be-signed-in-the-shortest-possible-time

https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2025/03/3/7501132/

Turkey may be willing to send peacekeepers - still a NATO country which Russia is against providing peacekeepers but they have a good relationship with Russia and Ukraine so maybe some scope…

https://www.turkiyetoday.com/world/turkiye-open-to-sending-peacekeepers-to-ukraine-amid-cease-fire-talks-bloomberg-125149/

REE rather than PGMs but still…also he says “rare and rare earth” so not sure if that’s two different categories of if he’s only talking about REE. Murmansk is on the radar though.

“By the way, we would be ready to offer our American partners, when I say partners, I mean not only administrative, government structures, but also companies - if they showed interest in working together. Of course, I want to emphasize that we have an order of magnitude more resources of this kind than in Ukraine," the head of state said in an interview with Pavel Zarubin after a meeting dedicated to the development of rare earth metals mining in the Russian Federation.

"Russia is one of the undisputed leaders in the reserves of these rare and rare earth metals. We also have them in the north in Murmansk, in the Caucasus and in Kabardino-Balkaria, in the Far East, in the Irkutsk region, in Yakutia, in Tyva. These are quite capital-intensive investments, capital-intensive projects. We would love to work together with any foreign partners, including American ones," Putin said.”

https://www.interfax.ru/russia/1010622?utm_source=top

Russian side is already sending proposals to the US for joint projects in the Artic and other areas:

IN THE WORLD

10:52, february 18, 2025

The head of RDIF announced the need for joint projects with the United States, including in the Arctic

Moscow. February 18. INTERFAX.RU - Kirill Dmitriev, Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said that Moscow had submitted a number of proposals to Washington in the investment and economic sphere, hoping for progress on this track in the next two or three months.

"We also need to make joint projects, including, for example, in the Arctic and in other areas, joint projects will allow us to be more successful," Dmitriev told reporters in Riyadh.

He noted that the track on the economy in Russian-American contacts is separate from the political one.

"I deal with investment and economic issues, we have a number of proposals (on which - IF) colleagues are thinking. I believe that there will be progress not in the long term, but in the next two or three months," the head of RDIF added.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian-American negotiations began in Riyadh, the Russian delegation is headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Assistant to the President of the country Yuri Ushakov.

https://www.interfax.ru/world/1009470

You were complaining that the UK hadn’t sent peacekeepers yesterday evening Yana. Now you’re complains that the UK is willing to send troops as part of a peace keeping mission.

You’re missing the point Database. Ukraine doesn’t trust Russia to honour a ceasefire. They think Russia will regroup and invade again like they did in Chechnya.

Trump wants Europe to provide security guarantees. While the UK obviously has too small an army to do this on it’s own, it’s a start.

If the other European countries do the same then Ukraine may feel comfortable enough to engage in negotiations.

UK willing to send troops as a security guarantee after a peace deal too. Expect France and other will do the same.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gxgxl3grgo

Headline and snippet below. The phrase putting the cart before the horse comes to mind but maybe this is a potential “carrot” as part of negotiations?

The Russian Federation and the United States agreed to support a communication channel to remove economic barriers

"The heads of foreign ministries agreed to maintain a communication channel to solve the accumulated problems in Russian-American relations in the interests of removing unilateral barriers inherited from the previous administration to mutually beneficial trade, economic and investment cooperation," the message published in the telegram channel of the Russian Foreign Ministry says.

https://www.interfax.ru/world/1009184?utm_source=top

I may be wrong but I think he’s referring to the US / UKR strategic agreement which includes supply of minerals. Agreement on that could secure US support and give Ukraine a better position for negotiations. I think things could happen quickly once this agreement is set.

MOEX index is up just below 5% at the moment as well.

chairman of the state duma committee says trump and putin will meet soon - no dates yet but talks underway by the sounds of it.

“according to him, such a meeting "requires serious preparation, which today is at an advanced stage".

"so in the near future, i think, we will have specific information about the meeting, and i hope that this meeting will have constructive consequences for the most burning, topical issues of today's world politics. these are ukraine, the middle east and in general issues of world politics and international relations in the near future. i am sure that this will be a landmark meeting, it will not be in vain," ****sky said.

https://www.interfax.ru/russia/1006637