Trump and Putin agree to a ceasefire on infrastructure and energy attacks in Ukraine war

Over two hours of talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday yielded very limited results — at least in public — in terms of imposing a ceasefire in Ukraine or making significant progress toward a peace agreement. According to their respective governments, the two leaders agreed only to an initial partial truce, under which Moscow will refrain from attacking infrastructure and energy facilities and which, according to the Kremlin, will last for 30 days. Furthermore, Russia announced a modest prisoner exchange of 175 people per side. But Putin maintains a list of demands to agree to a longer cessation of hostilities. These include an end to military aid and the provision of foreign intelligence to Ukraine, two conditions that are very damaging to Kyiv.

The statements issued by the two governments differ significantly. The White House did not specify a timeframe for the pause in attacks on infrastructure. It did indicate that “technical” talks will begin immediately somewhere in the Middle East, which would first address a ceasefire in the Black Sea. This limited truce would then progress to a full ceasefire and, later, to a permanent peace. The White House statement also makes a difference between “infrastructure” and “energy,” as though they were two different types of facilities. The Kremlin’s statement talks about “energy infrastructure.”

The lack of tangible results and Putin’s inflexibility have not prevented Trump from brimming with enthusiasm in his reactions. Shortly after the release of the statements, in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, the Republican described the call as “very good and productive.” “We agreed to an immediate ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a complete ceasefire and, ultimately, an end to this very horrible war between Russia and Ukraine [...] That process is now in full force and effect, and we will, hopefully, for the sake of humanity, get the job done!” he maintained.

The agreed-upon talks would likely take place in Saudi Arabia, which hosted the first rounds of discussions between representatives of the United States and delegations from Russia and Ukraine, respectively. The brief White House statement does not specify whether these negotiations would take place between Washington and Moscow, or whether they would also include Kyiv and its European allies. So far, Ukrainian authorities have remained silent on the outcome of the call, but some of the conditions Putin demands for a lasting ceasefire are hardly acceptable to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government.

Zelenskiy said yesterday during a virtual press conference from Finland, where he was on an official visit, that he supports any measure to reduce attacks, referring to the proposal not to bomb energy infrastructures. However, he considered that Putin is not ready to end the war and that his demands — a halt in mobilization and the cessation of weapons and intelligence supply — are aimed at weakening Ukraine. “We support all steps aimed at the end of the war. We will support them. But in order to support them, we need to understand what exactly we support,” he added in quotes cited by Reuters, reports Lola Hierro.

Trump and Putin discussed the “need for peace and a ceasefire in the Ukraine war,” the document released by the U.S. presidential office begins. “Both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace. They also stressed the need for improved bilateral relations between the United States and Russia.”

In Moscow, the official Russian statement contained details missing from the American text. And it included notable pitfalls. According to the statement, Putin expressed to Trump his rejection of an unconditional truce that would allow Ukraine to strengthen its position and threatened escalation if Kyiv receives more military and intelligence support. “The key condition for avoiding the escalation of the conflict and working toward a solution through political and diplomatic means must be a complete cessation of foreign military aid and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv,” the Russian government reportedly demanded during the phone call.

The Russian president reviewed “a series of important points” for accepting the 30-day ceasefire with Trump, which include “halting the mobilization of troops and the rearmament of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” although he expressed doubts about the truce’s vigilance along the frontlines. According to the Kremlin, the Russian leader “immediately” instructed his military to cease attacks and has agreed to negotiate on navigability in the Black Sea.

Putin reiterated his desire for a solution that meets “Russia’s legitimate security interests” and is “comprehensive, sustainable, and long-term.” In other words, Moscow is demanding that Ukraine be disarmed, left without any Western support and headed by a pro-Russia government, in addition to recognizing the territories claimed by the Kremlin as Russian.

Negotiations are likely to be derailed by the Kremlin’s demands, and Putin tried to convince Trump during their conversation that Kyiv will boycott his truce proposal. “[During the conversation] the serious risks associated with the Kyiv regime’s inability to negotiate, which has repeatedly sabotaged and violated other agreements, were highlighted,” read the Kremlin statement, the same government that violated the 2015 Minsk agreements with several subsequent offensives in Donbas.

In addition to Ukraine, the two leaders also talked about “the situation in the Middle East and the Red Sea region,” although the Kremlin statement omitted whether they discussed Israel’s new offensive in Gaza, which left more than 400 dead on Tuesday. “Joint efforts will be made to stabilize the situation in the crisis zones and establish cooperation on issues of nuclear nonproliferation and global security,” Moscow said.

Like Trump, Russia didn’t hide its euphoria after the telephone summit. One of the key figures in the Russian negotiating team, the head of the Kremlin’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, celebrated its results on X: “Under the leadership of President Putin and President Trump, the world has become a much safer place today! Historic! Epic!”

“Putin and Trump are on the same page,” Putin’s former advisor, Sergei Markov, remarked on his Telegram channel. “The main point is the improvement of bilateral relations,” the analyst emphasized, predicting the lifting of some sanctions, mainly in the banking sphere. “Europe has been left out. This is Putin and Trump’s revenge against Europe for the fact that its leaders hate them,” Markov said.

Putin reiterated to Trump his rejection of Ukraine taking advantage of a possible truce to strengthen its position, objections the Russian leader expressed last week: “A number of important points related to ensuring effective control over the possible ceasefire along the entire front and halting the forced mobilization [of troops] and rearmament of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” according to a summary from the Kremlin on Tuesday.

In their statements, neither government alludes to territorial issues or asset division, issues Trump had announced on Monday that he planned to discuss with his counterpart. The U.S. president had also announced that they would discuss aspects of the possible peace agreement that would follow the truce, specifically the distribution of territory and the future of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe and located in Russian-occupied territory.

Trump’s statements had rekindled fears in Kyiv and Europe that the two leaders could engineer a deal that would hand over much of occupied Ukrainian territory to Moscow and be therefore be unacceptable to Ukraine, the invaded country in Europe’s longest and bloodiest war since the end of World War II 80 years ago.

Washington’s statement on Tuesday’s talks also alludes to possible Russian-U.S. collaboration in the Middle East “to prevent future conflicts.” According to the White House, the two leaders agreed on the need to halt the proliferation of strategic weapons and also discussed Iran. “The two agreed that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.”

According to the U.S. statement, Putin and Trump also agreed on “the major positive aspects” that would result from an improvement in bilateral relations once peace is achieved in Ukraine. Among them, it cited “enormous economic agreements and geopolitical stability.”

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