Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump agreed to seek a limited 30-day ceasefire against energy and infrastructure targets in Ukraine, while talks aimed at advancing toward a broader peace plan will begin “immediately,” the White House said.
Putin stopped short of accepting a broader US-backed 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine has said it is ready to accept.
The Russian president raised “significant points” about preventing such a truce from being used by Ukraine to mobilize more soldiers and rearm itself, the Kremlin said in a statement following a lengthy phone call between the two leaders.
Putin also emphasized that the “complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv” is a condition for any permanent peace deal.
In a statement, the White House said negotiations on a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, as well as other potential areas of concern, would commence immediately in the Middle East.
“The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on the implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace,” the White House readout said.
Trump had been pressuring Putin to agree to a 30-day ceasefire that he hoped would move one step closer to ending Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two. The war has killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions, and reduced entire towns to rubble.
Trump has hinted that a permanent peace deal could include territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The US president’s overtures to Putin since returning to the White House in January have left traditional US allies wary.
Trump posted earlier on social media that his call with the Russian leader was “very good and productive” and that “many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed”.
“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,” the US president said on Truth Social.
White House’s statement following the Trump-Putin call on Tuesday did not refer to that agreement with Kyiv.
It instead said the two leaders agreed that “the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire”, followed by negotiations over a “maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace”.
But the Kremlin’s statement on the call noted what it said was a “series of significant issues” around enforcing any agreement with Kyiv. And it said the end of foreign support and intelligence for Ukraine was a “key condition” for Russia.
Trump and Putin agreed to immediate technical-level talks towards a longer-term settlement, which the Kremlin said must be “complex, stable and long-term in nature”.
But it’s unclear if this means further negotiations between the US and Russia or bilateral talks between Russia and Ukraine.
The Kremlin also said Trump supported Putin’s idea of holding ice hockey matches between professional US and Russian players.
