Trump’s ceasefire call with Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed Tuesday to halt strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure after a lengthy conversation with President Donald Trump, a first step toward easing Russia’s war on Ukraine, but he appeared resistant to the fuller ceasefire championed by the U.S. leader and endorsed by Kyiv.

The limited agreement showed the difficulty Trump may have in bringing to a close the war in Ukraine despite a campaign promise to do so in “24 hours.” Still, the Kremlin embraced the broader conversation with Trump as a signal that it was being welcomed back into the club of global superpowers despite its years-long campaign to capture neighbors’ territory, undermine democratic elections and make common cause with U.S. foes in Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang.

A top Russian official, Kirill Dmitriev, deemed it “a PERFECT call,” capturing the Kremlin’s glee at the sharp turnabout in White House attitudes toward Russia after Trump’s reorientation of generations of U.S. policy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that he would agree to the limited 30-day halt on strikes on energy targets provided that the United States ensure that the Russians were doing the same. He noted that he had not yet been briefed by Washington on the outcome of the talks, itself an extraordinary situation given Ukraine’s stake in their outcome.

The energy infrastructure ceasefire was more limited than the broader halt to hostilities that Trump had sought and that the Ukrainians endorsed last week, an apparent concession to Putin. Russia and Ukraine began secret talks last year on a mutual halt on strikes on energy infrastructure, but the conversations ended after Kyiv seized Russian territory in a surprise incursion in August. Trump and Putin also agreed Tuesday to start negotiating a maritime ceasefire that they said could lead to a full ceasefire and a permanent peace.

In one sign of the questions about the deal, the White House said that the two sides had agreed to a halt to strikes on “energy and infrastructure,” while the Kremlin said it was “energy infrastructure” — a difference that would allow it to continue pounding Ukrainian bridges, railways, ports and other targets.

Caption from article by Michael Birnbaum, Mary Ilyushina and Cat Zakrzewski.