President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia agreed for the first time on Tuesday to a limited cease-fire that would stop strikes on energy infrastructure, as long as Ukraine does the same, the Kremlin said in a statement.
But in a two-and-a-half-hour phone call with President Trump, the Russian leader declined for now to agree to a broader 30-day halt in fighting that U.S. and Ukrainian officials had proposed, meaning that the attacks on Ukrainian civilians, cities and ports can continue as the two sides vie for territory.
Still, if strikes on energy infrastructure by both sides indeed stop, it would mark the first mutually agreed suspension of attacks in the three-year war, which the White House characterized as a first step toward a broader peace.
A partial cease-fire would not only benefit Ukraine, which has struggled for years with Russia’s repeated attacks on its energy grid. It would also come as a relief to the Kremlin: Ukraine has conducted extensive strikes on oil and gas facilities deep into the Russian heartland, jeopardizing Moscow’s most crucial stream of state revenue.
In Tuesday’s call, Mr. Putin insisted that a long-lasting peace depended on a complete cessation of foreign military and intelligence assistance to Kyiv, the Kremlin said.
In essence, Mr. Putin was demanding an end to all of the military support for Ukraine that the United States and its allies have provided for three years. Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have been highly critical of the billions of dollars that the United States has spent on the war, but the White House made no reference to that part of the discussion in its vaguely worded account of the conversation.
Nor did the White House describe any discussions over what territory Russia might retain after its seizure of about 20 percent of Ukraine’s land, beginning with the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The result of the call seemed to fall well short of what Mr. Trump had been hoping for in his outreach to Moscow, after several days of optimistic-sounding pronouncements from the White House that peace was within reach.
It was not clear if Kyiv has signed off on the partial cease-fire agreement, though Ukraine previously had made a similar proposal. Even after the announcement from the Kremlin, air alarms sounded around Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine, and long-range Shahed drones streaked across Ukrainian skies.
The Trump administration temporarily suspended military and intelligence aid to Ukraine earlier this month after an explosive confrontation between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. Washington restored the flow of aid after U.S. and Ukrainian officials met in Saudi Arabia and agreed to a comprehensive 30-day cease-fire proposal. The Trump administration then brought the proposal to Moscow.
Mr. Putin, keen to avoid upsetting the Kremlin’s rapid rapprochement with the White House, said that the idea was “correct” and that Russia supported it in principle. But he proceeded to lay out conditions known to be unacceptable to Kyiv.
According to the Kremlin, the Russian leader reiterated those concerns during the call on Tuesday. Mr. Putin raised the issue of “ensuring effective control” to implement the cease-fire across a lengthy front, the Kremlin said. The Russian leader also said Ukraine would need to pause personnel mobilization and rearmament, a condition Ukraine has said it will not accept.
On Sunday night, Mr. Trump told reporters he expected much of the discussion would focus on territory that would be ceded to Russia, and on control of nuclear power plants. That seemed to suggest he wanted to discuss the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which is now occupied by Russian forces. But neither the Kremlin nor the White House mentioned any discussions about the power plant.
The administration’s avoidance of discussing the details, including any discussion the two men may have had on land concessions they would press Mr. Zelensky to make in the name of ending the fighting, may be designed to keep the maximum flexibility in the negotiating room. But it may also reflect a desire to avoid another open confrontation with Mr. Zelensky.
In recent days senior Ukrainian officials have described three red lines going into negotiations: Kyiv will never formally accept Russian sovereignty over occupied Ukrainian territory, agree to neutral status or agree to reduce the size of its armed forces. Officials have also said they must obtain security guarantees as part of any settlement. France and Britain, among others, have offered to send troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping or “trip wire” force, but the Kremlin has rejected the idea. And military officials question whether such a force is feasible if the United States does not agree to back up the European effort in a crisis.
Speaking to journalists on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine would not recognize occupied territory as Russian “under any circumstances,” adding that he understood “that this is precisely what the Russians need, and it will insist on terms it knows Ukraine cannot accept.” Last November, Mr. Zelensky conceded not all territory could be won back by force, and may have to remain under de facto Russian control after a settlement.
In its statement, the White House focused on issues beyond Ukraine, saying that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin “spoke broadly about the Middle East as a region of potential cooperation” and “the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons.” The sole remaining nuclear arms limitation treaty between the United States and Russia expires next February, and negotiations on a replacement have not begun. In his first term, Mr. Trump said he would not enter a new arms control treaty without China also signing on to limits, though Beijing has expressed no interest as it expands its arsenal.
For Mr. Trump, a Ukraine cease-fire is a first step to a much broader normalization of relations with Russia, which he is pursuing even while most of his NATO allies follow the strategy of the past three years: sanctions and containment of Russia, and continued aid for Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials have accused Mr. Putin of playing for time in order to maintain leverage in negotiations, and allow Russia time to continue bombarding Ukrainian cities and towns.
In its statement, the White House said that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin had agreed to begin “technical negotiations” over a broader maritime cease-fire in the Black Sea, where Russian ships can barely operate now, and a “full cease-fire and permanent peace.” It said those talks would “begin immediately in the Middle East.”
Marc Santora contributed reporting from Kyiv.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/us/politics/trump-putin-call-ukraine-russia-ceasefire.html
