Russian President Vladimir Putin says he hopes to meet U.S. President Donald Trump as the White House seeks to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.

Russian forces have the advantage on the battlefield, so a decision by Mr. Putin to settle rather than try to conquer more of Ukraine should be seen as a concession in itself, said Feodor Voitolovsky, director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, a Russian government-funded research group.