By Ryan Morgan
Contributing Writer
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke by phone on Wednesday, amid Trump’s efforts to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia.
“Just completed a very good telephone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform after the call ended.
The phone conversation lasted about an hour. It came a day after a lengthy phone conversation between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which the two leaders discussed a 30-day cease-fire whereby Russia and Ukraine would agree to stop attacking each other’s energy sites.
Following that Tuesday call, the Kremlin said Putin had immediately passed down the order to halt new Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector.
“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 of his Wednesday call with Zelenskyy.
Just hours before the Wednesday call with Washington, Zelenskyy alleged Russian forces had already breached the agreement.
Speaking at a press conference in Finland, Zelenskyy said Russian forces launched around 150 attack drones toward Ukraine in the hours after Trump concluded his call with Putin. He said those Russian attack drones had targeted Ukrainian energy sites, transportation systems and hospitals.
Russian officials claimed that Ukrainian forces had also targeted an oil transfer site in Russia’s Krasnodar region on Wednesday, setting fire to an oil tank there.
Despite the accusations of a breach, Trump said on Truth Social, “We are very much on track.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz issued a subsequent statement on the Trump-Zelenskyy call, stating the two leaders “agreed on a partial ceasefire against energy.”
Broader Cease-Fire Negotiations Proceeding
Last week, Zelenskyy voiced his support for a U.S.-backed proposal for a 30-day cease-fire covering not just energy sector sites but all aspects of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
After Trump and Putin’s call on Tuesday, the White House said the next round of negotiations would concern a cease-fire at sea and then a more comprehensive cease-fire and eventual permanent peace.
“Technical teams will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss broadening the ceasefire to the Black Sea on the way to a full cease-fire,” Rubio and Waltz’s joint press statement reads.
Putin had expressed willingness to enter into the more expansive temporary cease-fire but raised questions about how the deal would be monitored and enforced.
Following Trump and Putin’s call on Tuesday, the Kremlin said that in order to prevent new escalations and advance peace talks, there should be “a complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv.”
According to Rubio and Waltz’s readout of the Wednesday call, Zelenskyy asked for more air defense systems for Ukraine, to which Trump “agreed to work with him to find what was available particularly in Europe.”
Trump and Zelenskyy also discussed exchanges of prisoners of war, and efforts to locate and return children who have gone missing or been taken from Ukraine during the war.
