Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed today to a proposal by US president Donald Trump for Russia and Ukraine to stop hitting each other’s energy infrastructure for 30 days and gave a corresponding order to the Russian military, the Kremlin has said following a call between the two leaders.
The Kremlin said in a statement that the two leaders had a “detailed and frank exchange of views” on Ukraine during the phone call, in which Mr Putin said a resolution of the conflict must be “comprehensive, sustainable and long-term”, taking into account Russia’s own security interests and the root causes of the war.
The leaders discussed a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, to which Ukraine agreed last week. The Kremlin said Mr Putin had raised “significant points” about monitoring such a truce and preventing it from being used by Ukraine to mobilise more soldiers and rearm itself.
“It was emphasised that the key condition for preventing the escalation of the conflict and working towards its resolution by political and diplomatic means should be a complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv,” the Kremlin said.
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After the call ended, Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s international cooperation envoy, wrote on X: “Under the leadership of President Putin and President Trump, the world has become a much safer place today! Historic! Epic!”
The US administration had been looking to persuade the Russian leader to sign off on a 30-day ceasefire proposal as a possible pathway to end the war, the White House earlier said.
Tuesday’s call comes after Ukrainian officials last week agreed to the American proposal during talks in Saudi Arabia led by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy remains sceptical that Mr Putin is ready for peace as Russian forces continue to pound Ukraine.
Mr Trump, before the call, said he expected to discuss with Mr Putin land and power plants that have been seized during the three-year war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was already a “certain understanding” between the two leaders, based on a phone call they held on February 12th and on subsequent high-level contacts between the two countries.
“But there are also a large number of questions regarding the further normalisation of our bilateral relations, and a settlement on Ukraine. All of this will have to be discussed by the two presidents,” Mr Peskov told reporters.
“The leaders will speak for as long as they deem necessary,” he said earlier.
In a social media post on Monday, Mr Trump said, “Many elements of a Final Agreement have been agreed to, but much remains.”
[ Trump to speak to Putin by phone as Ukraine peacekeeping plans progressOpens in new window ]
“Each week brings 2,500 soldier deaths, from both sides, and it must end NOW. I look very much forward to the call with President Putin.”
Ukraine, which Mr Trump has previously described as being harder to work with than Russia, has agreed to the US proposed 30-day truce. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
“We got a good commitment from Ukraine last week,” US secretary of state Marco Rubio told “The Guy Benson Show” on Fox News radio on Monday.
“They agreed to stop shooting and freeze everything where it is, and we can get to talking about how to end this permanently. And now we got to get something like that from the Russians,” Mr Rubio said. “We’ll know more tomorrow after the president speaks to Putin. And hopefully we’ll be in a better place.”
Mr Trump has hinted at what aspects would make up a longer-term peace plan, including territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of a nuclear power plant likely to factor into negotiations.
[ EU foreign affairs chief questions Russia’s desire for peaceOpens in new window ]
Mr Zelenskiy has consistently said that the sovereignty of his country is not negotiable and that Russia must surrender the territory it has seized. Russia seized the Crimea peninsula in 2014 and now controls most of four eastern Ukrainian regions since it invaded the country in 2022.
Mr Putin has said his military incursion into Ukraine was because North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (Nato) creeping expansion threatened Russia’s security and has demanded Ukraine drop its Nato membership ambitions.
He has also said that Russia must keep control of Ukrainian territory it has seized, western sanctions should be eased and Kyiv must stage a presidential election. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, elected in 2019, currently rules under martial law he imposed due to the war.
Mr Trump, who promised as a presidential candidate to end the war in a swift 24 hours, faces a tough negotiator in Putin, who Zelenskiy has argued does not abide by agreements.
“There’s a danger that he will try to basically create more noise in this conversation with president Trump, pretending to agree on something while at the same time demanding more and more concessions on the Ukrainian side,” said Maria Snegovaya, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based policy research organisation.
“The worst case scenario is that Putin is successful selling some sort of promising lucrative future deal with Russia to Trump,” she said.
Mr Trump has moved the United States closer to Moscow since coming into office while alienating allies with tariffs and suggestions of annexing Canada and taking over Greenland.
He has expressed a kinship of sorts with Mr Putin, but his administration has shown recent signs of willingness to increase pressure on the Kremlin to stop the fighting.
Mr Trump held a contentious meeting Mr Zelenskiy at the White House last month that devolved in part because of Trump and vice-president JD Vance’s view that Mr Zelenskiy was insufficiently thankful for US support.
Mr Zelenskiy has accused Mr Putin of prolonging the war, saying that when the Russian leader speaks to Mr Trump on Tuesday, he will have been aware of the 30-day ceasefire proposal for a week.
Meanwhile, Russia sees big prospects to work with the United States, including in the space sector, and expects to hold talks with Elon Musk soon about flying to Mars, president Vladimir Putin’s international co-operation envoy said on Tuesday.
Kirill Dmitriev, was named by Mr Putin last month as his special envoy on international economic and investment co-operation
Mr Dmitriev said Russia wanted to work with SpaceX chief executive Musk as part of Moscow’s efforts to strengthen and develop Russia’s space agency Roscosmos and state nuclear corporation Rosatom.
“I think that there will undoubtedly be a discussion with Musk (about Mars flights) in the near future,” Mr Dmitriev said at a business forum in Moscow, going on to praise Musk’s efforts to push the boundaries of human achievement.
Mr Dmitriev said he was in touch with Roscosmos, Russian business and the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia.
Billionaire entrepreneur Musk was among Mr Trump’s biggest donors in the 2024 election and has become one of the president’s closest White House advisers.
– Reuters
