The White House has said President Donald Trump and Russian Vladimir Putin have agreed to start “the movement to peace” in Russia’s three-year-old war against Ukraine with a 30-day ceasefire that will include a halt to attacks targeting the countries’ energy infrastructure after a 90-minute phone call between the two leaders wrapped on Tuesday.
A White House readout of the conversation said the two leaders had agreed on an “energy and infrastructure ceasefire,” with talks to begin “immediately in the Middle East” about a full ceasefire. Separately, the Kremlin said Putin had agreed to stop strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for the next month. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also said he would agree to the 30-day pause in fighting.
A separate readout issued from Moscow said the two leaders had a “detailed and frank exchange of views” on Ukraine during a phone call in which Putin had stressed that any resolution to the conflict must be “comprehensive, sustainable and long-term” and take into account Russia’s own security interests and the root causes of the war, meaning it must include an end to Ukraine’s efforts to integrate more tightly into the democratic-led West.
“It was emphasized that the key condition for preventing the escalation of the conflict and working towards its resolution by political and diplomatic means should be a complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv,” the Kremlin added.
The White House did not immediately respond to a query on whether Trump had agreed to Putin’s demand to halt aid to Ukraine or whether an end to western assistance for Kyiv was a condition of the 30-day “energy and infrastructure ceasefire.”
The White House also said Trump and Putin “spoke broadly about the Middle East as a region of potential cooperation to prevent future conflicts” and “further discussed the need to stop the proliferation of strategic weapons,” with both agreeing “that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside,” including “enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved.”
The call between the two leaders started at 10 a.m. and, according to Russian state news agency TASS, wrapped at approximately 11:30 am ET, roughly 90 minutes after it started.
A White House official confirmed that the call had been completed but would not confirm the time at which the two presidents finish speaking.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino had previously confirmed the status of the conversation in a post on X (formerly Twitter) in which he stated that the call started at 10 a.m. ET, with Trump speaking from the Oval Office.
“The call is going well, and still in progress,” he added.
Scavino posted again to say that the call was “still in progress” as of 11:32 a.m. ET, more than 90 minutes after it had begun, apparently contradicting the Russian news report. The Independent has reached out to the White House to clarify the discrepancy.
The conversation between the leaders had been initially scheduled to begin an hour earlier, but was delayed while Putin was busy addressing oligarchs at a business conference. He had been talking about how Western sanctions would continue to try to exclude Russia from the global economy.
The Russian leader is infamous for being late to calls or meetings with foreign leaders — a power move intended to display dominance.
The call between Trump and Putin, the second such conversation since Trump was sworn in for a second term in the White House in January, comes as Trump has been pushing both the Russian dictator and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept a 30-day ceasefire proposal that would, in theory, lead to more comprehensive negotiations to end the three-year-old war that began when Putin ordered Russian forces to invade and decapitate Zelensky’s government in February 2022.
According to Bloomberg, Putin is expected to demand that Trump halt all American aid to Kyiv — and potentially push America’s European allies to halt their own aid efforts — as a precondition for Russia to honor any temporary ceasefire.
European leaders have expressed concern that such a concession would allow Russia to rearm during any pause in fighting, leaving Kyiv unable to properly defend itself.
In a Monday evening phone call with Trump, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned that Ukraine must be put in the “strongest possible position” in order to secure a “just and lasting peace.”
A spokesperson for the prime minister said Starmer “updated the president on his coalition of the willing call with international leaders that took place on Saturday” and “reiterated that all must work together to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position to secure a just and lasting peace.”
Trump is reportedly considering offering Putin an inducement in the form of American recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the region of Ukraine that Russian troops illegally annexed in 2014.
Semafor reported on Monday that U.S. officials have also discussed the possibility of the Trump administration pushing the United Nations to recognize Russian control of the peninsula, citing a pair of administration sources. But National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes denied the reporting, telling the outlet that the administration has “made no such commitments.”