Putin, In Call With Trump, Agrees To Partial Ceasefire In Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a partial 30-day ceasefire of attacks on energy infrastructure with Ukraine during a lengthy phone call Tuesday with President Donald Trump.

The White House celebrated the news but it fell short of the full 30-day pause that Ukraine had agreed to, which could complicate efforts to speed negotiations for a full end to the war.

According to a readout from the White House, Russia “will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire,” and additional negotiations are being planned on the implementation of “a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace.”

It’s not clear if Ukraine will sign off on those terms given Putin’s steep demands for ending the conflict, which Russia launched three years ago.

According to the Kremlin’s readout, Putin “responded positively” to Trump's proposal for a 30-day pause on attacks on energy infrastructure and “immediately gave the Russian military the corresponding order.”

Putin also told Trump of a planned exchange of 175 Russian prisoners for 175 Ukrainian prisoners that’s set to take place Wednesday, the Kremlin said

The call, the second between the two leaders since Trump took office in January, appears to have lasted around two hours. And it comes one week after U.S. and Ukrainian officials first agreed to a proposal for a monthlong ceasefire during a meeting in Saudi Arabia.

Following that announcement a week ago, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the onus had shifted to Russia to show that it was serious about engaging in U.S.-led talks to end the conflict.

But Trump has yet to publicly pressure Putin the way he has Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Both Trump and Putin, in their respective readouts, expressed a desire for normalizing relations and working together in other areas.

It’s unclear if Putin’s steep conditions for agreeing to a broader ceasefire — including pausing U.S. defense aid to Ukraine, barring Ukraine from future NATO membership and requiring Ukraine to hold new presidential elections — will be too onerous for Zelenskyy to accept.

In the run-up to his call with Putin, Trump made clear that his focus, to a large extent, was already on determining how much of Ukraine’s territory Russia will get to keep under a pact to end the fighting.

He specifically mentioned the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, located inside Ukraine’s border but currently controlled by Russian forces, on multiple occasions.

Over the weekend, Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told ABC News that Ukraine would almost certainly have to cede some territory in exchange for a lasting peace backed by durable security guarantees from the U.S. and Europe.

“We can talk about what’s right and wrong,” Waltz said. “And we also have to talk about the reality of the situation on the ground.”