President Donald Trump said he had a ‘very good telephone call’ with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in their first conversation since last month’s disastrous Oval Office meeting.
The two men spoke for about an hour to discuss Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the conditions for a partial ceasefire.
‘Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs. We are very much on track,’ Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump added that he was asking Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz to give more details.
Both men are headed to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to resume the peace talks.
Wednesday’s phone call was the first time Zelensky and Trump spoke since their falling out in the Oval Office at the end of February. The two men got into a shouting match about the war with Russia, with Trump accusing Zelensky of not being grateful enough to the United States for all the aid Kyiv received.
President Donald Trump said he had a ‘very good telephone call’ with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
In a lengthy phone call on Tuesday, Trump and Putin took the first steps toward ending the war between Russia and Ukraine when they agreed to an ‘energy and infrastructure ceasefire.’
The partial ceasefire agreement will be in effect for 30 days. Talks for a permanent peace will ‘begin immediately’ in the Middle East although Putin told Trump that he has several conditions he wants met in order for the fighting to end.
‘The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace. These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East,’ the White House said in its readout of the call.
But Zelensky, who was not on the call, accused Russia of already violating that agreement.
He said that Ukrainian civilian infrastructure was hit after Putin and Trump had their conversation.
‘Unfortunately, there have been hits, specifically on civilian infrastructure,’ Zelensky wrote on X. ‘A direct hit by a ‘Shahed’ drone on a hospital in Sumy, strikes on cities in the Donetsk region, and attack drones currently in the skies over the Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy regions.’
‘Today, Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire. It would be right for the world to respond by rejecting any attempts by Putin to prolong the war,’ Zelensky said of Russia’s move.
Meanwhile, US envoy Steve Witkoff said talks on a peace deal will begin Monday in Jeddah, predicting a ceasefire agreement could come as soon as ‘a couple of weeks.’
‘I believe on Monday we actually have the technical teams going’ to the Kingdom, Witkoff told Bloomberg Television.
‘They agreed on a pathway to some ceasefire conditions… and to a full-on ceasefire that will be negotiated over the coming days. I actually think in a couple of weeks we’re going to get to it,’ he said.
Witkoff, who is also Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, did not provide details on the upcoming talks but said it was time ‘for the technical teams to dot the I’s and cross the T’s, and everybody is committed to that process.’
He also said it’s ‘my best bet’ that a meeting between Trump and Putin is ‘likely to happen.’ He offered no timeline.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of violating the partial ceasefire
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had not spoken since their fallout in the Oval Office at the end of February
Putin, however, has conditions for a permanent end to the fighting, saying he wants the United States and its allies to end military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine to halt hostilities, according to the Kremlin readout of the conversation with Trump.
‘It was emphasized that the key condition for preventing the escalation of the conflict and working towards its resolution through political and diplomatic means should be the complete cessation of foreign military aid and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv,’ Moscow said.
European allies, however, are worried that could result in Moscow rearming itself during a ceasefire, leaving Kyiv short-handed and playing catchup.
