- Putin stopped short of backing a 30-day ceasefire and said any long-term deal would require a halt to intelligence sharing and military aid to Ukraine from its allies
- Steven Witkoff said that the sides “have some details to work out, of course,” but “that will begin on Sunday in Jeddah”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to an immediate 30-day pause in strikes on energy infrastructure in Ukraine during a lengthy phone call with Donald Trump.
The Russian and US presidents spoke for around an hour and a half as the Trump administration aims to bring about an end to the conflict which started after Moscow’s forces carried out a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Mr Putin agreed to the limited ceasefire but stopped short of backing a broader 30-day pause in fighting that the White House is pushing for.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after the call that he supports the US proposal to stop Kyiv’s strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.
Mr Zelenskyy added that the hopes to speak to Mr Trump to find out “what the Russians offered the Americans or what the Americans offered the Russians” during his conversation with Mr Putin.
He also said that future talks about Ukraine without Kyiv at the table will not bring results.
During talks led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Saudi Arabia last week, Ukrainian officials agreed to the US proposal for a 30-day pause in fighting.
However, Mr Putin said during his call with Mr Trump on Tuesday that any long-term deal would require a complete halt to intelligence sharing and military aid to Ukraine from its allies.
Mr Zelenskky said in an online briefing after the call that Ukraine’s partners would never agree to such a move and that he hopes supplies will continue.
He added that Moscow’s demand was simply an example of Mr Putin attempting to weaken Ukraine.
US hopes call marks first step towards peace
The White House has said Mr Trump and Mr Putin agreed to a “movement to peace” it hopes will eventually include a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea and a full and lasting end to the fighting.
“These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East,” the White House added.
Mr Putin welcomed Mr Trump’s calls for the maritime ceasefire and “agreed to begin negotiations to further work out specific details of such an agreement”, according to the Kremlin.
Ukrainian officials had earlier proposed a ceasefire covering the Black Sea and long-range missile strikes and the release of prisoners at their meeting with the US delegation in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.
Meanwhile, US President’s Special Envoy Steven Witkoff told Fox News in an interview that Washington expects the Kiev government to support agreements reached during the latest phone conversation between the presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
“I had two meetings with President Putin. The first one was for somewhere close to three and a half hours, and the second one was close to four hours. They were both compelling. I thought we accomplished quite a bit, and in the second meeting, we actually really narrowed the issues, certainly from the Russian standpoint, we were immediately in discussions on tangible, granular ways to move forward towards a ceasefire that included what you’ve heard about today, which is the ceasefire with regard to energy infrastructure from both sides, something they’ve been trying to put together for quite some time,” he said.
“And secondly, what people colloquially refer to as the Black Sea, maritime aspect of a ceasefire. I think both of those are now agreed to by the Russians. I am certainly hopeful that the Ukrainians will agree to it,” the US official went on.
Witkoff added that the sides “have some details to work out, of course,” but “that will begin on Sunday in Jeddah.”
“And beyond that, we’ll move to a full ceasefire, and we had some very good conversation today on the ingredients to achieve that. So all in all, really positive results,” he said, without giving any details of the forthcoming talks.
Speaking about the upcoming consultations in Jeddah, Trump’s special envoy said Washington would send to Saudi Arabia a team “led by our national security advisor [Mike Waltz] and our Secretary of State [Marco Rubio].”
“We’ve got to figure out the details. The point is that 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,” he continued.
“President Putin – and I would commend him for this – said that he agreed with the President’s posture on it all. He agreed with the approach. He didn’t want to see more people dying in the field,” Witkoff added.
@Sky News, TASS