WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said he had a “very good” call with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky Wednesday, insisting that efforts to secure a ceasefire remained on track despite the lack of a deal so far with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
As Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of not respecting a halt in attacks against energy infrastructure, agreed during Trump’s talks with Putin on Tuesday, the US president said he spoke for around an hour with his Ukrainian counterpart.
“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,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.
“We are very much on track.”
The call was believed to be the first between the pair since Trump and Zelensky had a blazing, televised row in the Oval Office two and a half weeks ago that led to a brief halt in US aid for Ukraine.
Zelensky later relented and agreed to a US plan for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire with Russia, plus a deal giving Washington preferential access to Ukraine’s minerals.
Kyiv said Zelensky was being briefed about Tuesday’s call between Trump and Putin that saw the Kremlin leader agree to a limited 30-day halt on strikes against Ukraine’s power grid.
But Putin refused to agree to a full ceasefire, insisting that Western aid to Kyiv must first stop, that Ukraine must not be allowed to rearm, and that it must halt mandatory mobilization.
Russia invaded pro-Western Ukraine just over three years ago and still occupies around 20 percent of its territory.
Despite both Ukraine and Russia saying they now backed a temporary truce on power plants, each accused the other of failing to adhere to the halt.
Ukraine’s defense ministry said an overnight barrage of Russian missile and drones struck the war-battered nation, killing one person and damaging two hospitals.
“Today Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire,” said Zelensky.
Ukraine’s national railway service said the barrage had hit railway energy infrastructure in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
“So much for a pause in the attacks on the energy sector or an energy truce executed by the enemy!” a railway statement added.
Russia’s defense ministry reported a “deliberate” Ukrainian attack overnight on an oil depot in the south of the country, which they said was aimed at “derailing” Trump’s attempts to broker an end to the fighting.
“These attacks are countering our common efforts,” added Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, referring to the US-Russian talks.
Russia and Ukraine did however exchange 372 prisoners, Moscow said Wednesday, which was planned as a goodwill gesture.
In Washington, US envoy Steve Witkoff said technical talks on a possible deal to end the war would begin in Saudi Arabia on Monday. He predicted that a ceasefire agreement could be reached “within a couple of weeks.”
He told Bloomberg Television that a meeting in the kingdom between Trump and Putin was “likely” but offered no timeline.
Washington and Moscow however appeared to be at odds over exactly what Tuesday’s agreement entailed, with Moscow insisting it only covered energy plants but US officials insisting it covered other infrastructure too.
Zelensky warned before his call with Trump against making “any concessions” to Russia following Putin’s demand for a Western aid halt.
Trump insisted on Monday night that he and Putin “didn’t talk about aid at all.”
The US president has however talked about dividing up “assets” including Ukrainian land.
Trump’s overtures to Putin and indications Washington will no longer guarantee European security have spooked Kyiv and the United States’s NATO allies and prompted moves toward a steep increase in domestic defense spending.
“I don’t believe Putin at all, not a single word. He only understands force,” said Lev Sholoudko, 32.
In Moscow, locals were more optimistic the talks could bring an end to the fighting — to Russia’s advantage.
“Definitely this is in our favor,” said one Moscow resident, Larisa, 46. “There is no other way. What happened in 1945 will happen now,” she added, referring to the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.