Ukraine has reportedly agreed to a Russia ceasefire deal following a call between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump. The two leaders held an hour-long call earlier today – 24 hours after Trump spoke at length with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian leader told his US counterpart that he would abide by an “energy and infrastructure ceasefire” after Putin agreed to the proposal on Tuesday, a source close to the situation told Bloomberg.
Zelensky informed Trump of his agreement during a phone call today, they added, marking the first conversation between the two since their widely-publicised bust-up in the Oval Office last month. Following “productive” talks with the Kremlin yesterday, Trump described his call with Zelensky as “very good” – adding that work towards a ceasefire was “on track”. “Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs,” the US leader wrote on Truth Social.
Trump also said that a more comprehensive statement about the call with Zelensky would be released later today.
The US President fell short of convincing Putin to back a full 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine on Tuesday – and Zelensky suggested that Russia‘s commitment to a halt on energy infrastructure strikes was “at odds with reality” after a barrage of drone attacks were launched in the Eastern European country overnight.
“Even last night, after Putin’s conversation with … Trump, when Putin said that he was allegedly giving orders to stop strikes on Ukrainian energy, there were 150 drones launched overnight, including on energy facilities,” he said at a news conference today.
Russia insisted that it had halted strikes on Ukraine‘s energy facilities and accused Kyiv of attacking equipment near one of its pipelines, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov criticising a lack of “reciprocity” from the Ukrainian leadership.
The White House has described the call between Trump and Putin as the first step in a “movement to peace”, however, with hopes that a 30-day cessation of infrastructure strikes will extend to a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, before eventually bringing a full and lasting end to the three-year conflict.
Zelensky has not yet publicly commented on today’s phone call.
