Former U.S. President Donald Trump posted on social media that he had spoken with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday (early Thursday AEST) to "coordinate the positions of Russia and Ukraine on needs" in order to facilitate a ceasefire between the two countries. He added, "We are making good progress."
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03-21, 2025Trump stated that he has asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz to provide more details about the calls in an upcoming statement. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy described the call as "positive, substantive, and candid," indicating a potentially constructive dialogue.
Prior to his call with Trump, Zelenskyy said that Putin's promises "seriously diverge from reality" after a series of nationwide drone attacks. "Even last night, after Putin spoke with...Trump, when Putin said he якобы ordered a stop to attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, 150 drones were launched overnight, including against energy facilities," he said at a press conference in Helsinki with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
Following his call with Trump, Zelenskyy stated that ending attacks on energy and other civilian infrastructure could be "the first step towards a comprehensive end to the war." He posted on X: "I support this step, and Ukraine confirms that we are ready to implement it." Russia responded by stating that they had stopped attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities and accused Kyiv of attacking equipment near one of its pipelines.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated, "Unfortunately, we see that the Kyiv regime is not currently taking reciprocal action." The White House described Trump's call with Putin as "a first step towards peace," with Washington hoping this would include a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea and ultimately a complete and lasting end to the fighting.
But there is no indication that Putin has abandoned his conditions for a future peace agreement, which have been strongly rejected by Kyiv. The Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War said that Putin's demands made during his call with Trump amounted to "Ukrainian surrender." "Putin is attempting to hold the offer of a temporary ceasefire hostage to preemptively extract concessions before negotiations over a formal end to the war even begin," the institute said in an analysis of the call.
Stubb called the discussion between Putin and Trump a step in the right direction, but the Finnish president said Russia needed to end its aggression. "There are only two ways to respond to the U.S. president's proposal: yes or no—no buts, no conditions," Stubb said, emphasizing the need for a clear and decisive response.
Stubb continued, "Ukraine has accepted a ceasefire without any form of conditions. If Russia refuses to agree, we need to step up our game in strengthening Ukraine and step up the pressure on Russia to convince them to come back to the negotiating table." White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said on social media that he and his Russian counterpart, Yuri Ushakov, agreed on Wednesday that their teams would meet soon in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, "focused on implementing and expanding President Trump's partial ceasefire obtained from Russia."
It is not clear who will be on the delegations or whether Ukrainian officials have also been invited to the talks in Saudi Arabia. Shortly after Trump and Putin concluded a lengthy phone call on Tuesday, air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv, followed by explosions as residents took cover. Zelenskyy said that despite efforts to repel the attacks, several strikes hit civilian infrastructure, including two hospitals, a railway, and more than 20 homes.
Russian drones were reportedly flying over the regions of Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces launched seven drones at electricity facilities in Ukraine's southern Mykolaiv region linked to the military-industrial complex but shot them down after receiving Putin's order not to strike energy infrastructure.
Moscow accused Ukraine of attacking its energy facilities in the Krasnodar region, which borders the Crimean Peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, hours after the Putin-Trump talks. The ministry said three drones struck oil transfer equipment supplying the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, causing a fire and leading to the depressurization of one tank.
"It is obvious that we are talking about another deliberate provocation by the Kyiv regime aimed at disrupting the U.S. president's peace initiatives," the ministry said. Russia said its air defenses intercepted 57 Ukrainian drones over the Sea of Azov and several Russian regions—the border provinces of Kursk and Bryansk and the nearby regions of Oryol and Tula.
Zelenskyy said that "words about a ceasefire" are not enough. "If the Russians do not strike our facilities, we will certainly not strike theirs," Zelenskyy said. Zelenskyy rejected Putin's key condition that Western allies stop providing military aid and intelligence to Ukraine. He said that if citizens turned a blind eye to incoming air strikes, it would endanger lives and cause the war to continue.
Zelenskyy said, "I don't think anyone should make any concessions in helping Ukraine, on the contrary, aid to Ukraine should be increased." "This will be a signal that Ukraine is ready to respond to any surprises from the Russians." At a press conference hours after Zelenskyy and Trump spoke, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "Intelligence sharing in the defense of Ukraine will continue."
This may indicate a significant deviation from current intelligence sharing, which has enabled Ukraine to better plan attacks on Russian forces. Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Putin's refusal to a ceasefire was "not at all surprising," adding, "It is indiscreet of him to say this directly to President Trump, because Trump has made ending the war a very, very high priority."
Gould-Davies said, "What we actually have now is a competition or contest between Kyiv and Moscow to persuade Trump that it is the other side that is preventing Trump from achieving his goal of ending the war." Zelenskyy stated that one of the most difficult issues in future negotiations will be the issue of territorial concessions.
He said, "For us, the red line is recognizing the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine as Russian territory."
