Russia said that discussions with Washington were underway regarding potential peace talks to end the war nearly three years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

That will take some doing. Putin remains uninterested in peace talks as long as Russian troops continue to gain ground in Ukraine’s east, albeit at a slow pace, and while Ukrainian forces hold seized territory in the Kursk region inside Russia, according to John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and other former officials.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he wanted Ukraine to supply the country with rare earths in return for financially supporting Kyiv's war effort against Russia.