US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation on Tuesday during which the two leaders agreed to a 30-day suspension of strikes on Russia’s and Ukraine’s energy facilities.
“We had a great call. It lasted almost two hours,” Trump said on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle show.
During the phone call, Putin agreed to temporarily halt attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities but refused to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire. The White House said talks on a maritime cease-fire in the Black Sea, as well as a more comprehensive cease-fire and permanent peace agreement, would begin immediately after Tuesday’s phone call.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff stated that it was unclear whether Ukraine would participate in the future talks, which are due to take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday. However, Witkoff emphasised that the negotiation process progressed.
Up until recently, we really didn’t have consensus around these two aspects–the energy and infrastructure ceasefire and the Black Sea moratorium on firing–and today we got to that place, and I think it’s a relatively short distance to a full ceasefire from there.
Immediately after the phone call, Putin ordered the Russian military to stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities, the Kremlin said. However, it expressed concern that a temporary ceasefire could allow Ukraine to rearm and mobilise more soldiers.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the decision to support a suspension of strikes on energy infrastructure had not been made yet. He noted that after receiving details from the US president and his administration, Ukraine would prepare its response to the proposal to stop the attacks.
Today, Putin de facto rejected the proposal for a complete ceasefire. It would be right for the world to reject in response any attempts by Putin to drag out the war.
On the same day, Russian air defence forces repelled a Ukrainian drone attack in the Krasnodar region, which resulted in a fire at a local oil depot.
