Nearly three years after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, his troops are making steady progress on the battlefield.

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.

Putin has said repeatedly that he is prepared to negotiate an end to the war, which first began in 2014, but that Ukraine would have to accept the reality of Russian territorial gains, which are currently about 20% of its land. He also refuses to accept Ukraine joining Nato, the military alliance of Western countries.

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, claims that he spoke with the leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin, about ending the war in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov neither confirmed nor denied this information.

U.S. President Donald Trump revealed that he recently spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine, according to the New York Post. During an interview aboard Air Force One on Friday,