Putin agrees to limit Ukraine attacks but won't commit to truce

WASHINGTON — President Vladimir Putin declined Donald Trump’s bid for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, agreeing instead to limit attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure while demanding that the U.S. and other nations stop the flow of weapons and intelligence to the neighbor his military invaded.

The Russian leader put forward his proposal in a phone call with Trump that lasted two and a half hours and produced promises from the two sides to start negotiations on a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea as well as a “full ceasefire and permanent peace,” the White House said in a statement afterward. Those talks will begin “immediately” in the Middle East, the White House said, without providing details.

Putin’s position fell well short of the Trump administration’s call for a total halt to the fighting for 30 days so the sides could hammer out a longer-term agreement. Russia’s conditions didn’t even go as far as a Ukrainian offer earlier this month to halt air and sea attacks, a proposal that the U.S. at the time rejected as insufficient. Under heavy U.S. pressure, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy eventually acquiesced in Trump’s ceasefire plan.

Despite Putin’s rejection of the ceasefire terms, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site that the conversation was “a very good and productive one.” He said “many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed,” and that both Putin and Zelenskyy want to see an agreement to end the war.

“That process is now in full force and effect, and we will, hopefully, for the sake of Humanity, get the job done!” Trump wrote.

The Kremlin’s account of the call said Putin imposed several conditions for a lasting ceasefire, including the suspension of arms and intelligence support for Ukraine. Ukraine must also stop mobilizing new recruits, it said.

The Russian position will force a tough choice on Trump, who must decide whether to continue sending weapons to Ukraine so Zelenskyy can protect against Russia’s full-scale invasion, now in its fourth year. Much of the two sides’ readouts discussed the U.S.-Russia bilateral relationship, making clear that Trump and Putin are both looking to boost ties beyond Ukraine.

Russia said Trump backed Putin’s idea to organize matches between players in the two countries’ professional hockey leagues. The U.S. readout said better U.S.-Russia ties have a “huge upside.”

‘Buying time’

“Russia is buying time here,” said Liana Fix, a fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“This very much fits into a logic that U.S.-Russia talks are about a normalization of the U.S.-Russia relationship, which the Russian side likes to push ahead with, while at the same time downgrading the resolution of Ukraine,” Fix said.

Zelenskyy said the phone call shows that Russia isn’t ready for a ceasefire. He told reporters the warring nations could agree to halt strikes on energy infrastructure if the U.S. acts as the middleman.

“It cannot be that Russia will hit our infrastructure and we will keep silence,” he said. “We will respond.”

He also said he’d like to talk to Trump about the details of Moscow’s proposal. A pause of attacks on energy assets would benefit Putin given that Ukraine has targeted refineries inside Russian territory with missiles and drones.

The U.S. and Russian readouts of the call also had a possibly crucial discrepancy. The U.S. readout said Trump and Putin agreed to an “energy and infrastructure” ceasefire, suggesting Russia wouldn’t target energy assets or structures such as bridges or roads. Trump repeated that formulation in his social media post, saying “we agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure.”

But Russia’s version of the call described their agreement as only pausing attacks on “energy infrastructure.”

Recent comments by Trump have prompted fears in Ukraine and among its European supporters that the U.S. may be willing to sacrifice Kyiv’s interests as part of a push for a deal. Before the call, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that “many elements of a Final Agreement have been agreed to, but much remains.”

Ukraine and its allies are anxious that Russia won’t honor any deal with Trump to end the war, leaving Kyiv vulnerable to attack in the future. After Trump came to office having pledged to end the conflict rapidly, they also worry that Putin may leverage U.S. interest in securing a deal to make additional demands that would undermine Ukraine or threaten Europe’s future security.

“Russia’s goal for the talks is to put themselves in a better position to win the war and end a democratic Ukraine — that remains unchanged,” said Max Bergmann, a former U.S. State Department official now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

By the administration’s own advance definition, however, the Trump-Putin call was a failure. Speaking to reporters in Saudi Arabia a week ago, national security adviser Michael Waltz said there had been “all kinds of discussions” about different types of ceasefires.

“The president has made it clear, and certainly made it clear to us, that all fighting needs to stop,” Waltz said. “And the Ukrainians have agreed to that proposal, they’re ready for peace, and now we’ll take that to the Russians and get their response.”

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—With assistance from Natalia Drozdiak and Akayla Gardner.

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