Trump says he will pitch Putin on 30-day cease-fire with Ukraine

March 12 (UPI) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said he will talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin this week to try to get him to enter into into a 30-day cease-fire with Ukraine negotiated by U.S. and Ukrainian officials in talks in Saudi Arabia.

"I'll talk to Vladimir Putin. It takes two to tango as they say right? So hopefully he'll also agree," Trump told reporters on the south lawn of the White House on Tuesday.

"I really think that would be 75% of the way, the rest is getting it documented, you know, negotiating land positions."

Trump said he hoped the cease-fire could be in place in the next few days following a "big meeting with Russia" scheduled for Wednesday where he said he hoped "some great conversations would ensue."

Moscow denied any phone call between the Russian and American presidents was in the pipeline.

"There are currently no arrangements on a telephone conversation between the presidents of Russia and the U.S., Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, and no requests have come from Washington," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who did not take part in the negotiations, was planning to bring the deal to Moscow for a meeting with Putin on Thursday after talks in Qatar in his main role as peace negotiator for the region, according to Axios, which quoted a source as saying the timing could change according to the schedules of the two men.

It will be Witkoff's second meeting with Putin after he traveled to Moscow in February to secure the release of American teacher Marc Fogel, with Trump opting to capitalize on Witkoff's relationship with Putin in dealings with Russia as the most effective use of the competencies within his foreign policy and national security team.

Following Tuesday's deal secured by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz in 11 hours of talks with a high-level Ukrainian delegation in which Ukraine accepted a U.S. proposal for an immediate, extendable 30-day cease-fire, pending Russian agreement, the United States said it would resume military assistance to Ukraine and end an intelligence-sharing ban.

U.S. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard confirmed early Wednesday that Washington had resumed providing Kyiv with intelligence critical to Ukraine's ability to defend itself a week after Trump halted most intelligence-sharing, along with all military assistance, following heated exchanges with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

"Because of the president of the United States' leadership, we are one significant step closer to ending the bloody war in Ukraine. Per the President's direction, the pause on intelligence sharing with Ukraine has ended," Gabbard wrote in a statement posted on X just hours after the talks in Jeddah ended.