The White House is optimistic that peace is within reach even as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy remains sceptical that Putin is doing much beyond paying lip service to Trump as Russian forces continue to pound his country.
The engagement is just the latest turn in dramatically shifting US-Russia relations as Trump made quickly ending the conflict a top priority, even at the expense of straining ties with longtime American allies who want Putin to pay a price for the invasion.
"It's a bad situation in Russia, and it's a bad situation in Ukraine," Trump told reporters on Monday.
"What's happening in Ukraine is not good, but we're going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace. And I think we'll be able to do it."
In preparation for the Trump-Putin call, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin in Moscow last week to discuss the proposal.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio had persuaded senior Ukrainian officials during talks in Saudi Arabia to agree to the ceasefire framework.
The US president said Washington and Moscow have already begun discussing "dividing up certain assets" between Ukraine and Russia as part of a deal to end the conflict.
Trump, who during his campaign pledged to quickly end the war, has at moments boasted of his relationship with Putin and blamed Ukraine for Russia's unprovoked invasion, all while accusing Zelenskiy of unnecessarily prolonging the biggest land war in Europe since World War II.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that Trump and Putin would discuss the war in Ukraine but added there were also a "large number of questions" regarding normalising US-Russia relations.
The call would take place between 1pm and 3pm GMT (12am and 2am AEDT on Wednesday), Peskov said.
Trump has said that swaps of land and power plants will be part of the conversation.
Witkoff and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that US and Russian officials had discussed the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant - Europe's largest - in southern Ukraine.
The plant has been caught in the crossfire since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in 2022 and seized the facility shortly after.
The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly expressed alarm about it, fuelling fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe.
The plant is a significant asset, producing nearly a quarter of Ukraine's electricity in the year before the war.
After a disastrous February 28 White House meeting with Zelenskiy, Trump temporarily cut off some military intelligence-sharing and aid to Ukraine.
It was restored after the Ukrainians last week signed off on the Trump administration's 30-day ceasefire proposal.
Zelenskiy in his nightly video address on Monday made clear he remains doubtful that Putin is ready for peace.
"Now, almost a week later, it's clear to everyone in the world - even to those who refused to acknowledge the truth for the past three years - that it is Putin who continues to drag out this war," Zelenskiy said.
Trump on Monday again underscored his view that Ukraine was not in a strong negotiating position.
He said Russian forces had "surrounded" Ukrainian troops in Russia's Kursk region - amplifying an assertion made by Russian officials that has been refuted by Zelenskiy.
Ukraine's army stunned Russia in August 2024 by attacking across the border and taking control of an estimated 1300 sq km of land.
But Ukraine's forces are now in retreat and it has all but lost a valuable bargaining chip, as momentum builds for a ceasefire with Russia.
Zelenskiy has acknowledged the Ukrainians are on their back foot but refutes Russian claims that they have encircled his troops in Kursk.
