President Trump said he made a “very good call” with Ukrainian President Voldy Mie Zelensky on Wednesday to discuss the next steps after a discussion by the US leader with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.
In a social media post, Trump said the call lasted about an hour, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Michael Waltz going to give him a more complete picture of what was quickly discussed.
However, his initial tone was markedly positive, lacking the keen criticism he has imposed on Ukrainian leaders in recent weeks, including during last month's hot-blooded office conflict.
“Most of the discussion was based on a call with Putin yesterday, to coordinate both Russia and Ukraine in terms of demand and needs,” Trump wrote Wednesday. “We're on very well.”
Zelensky said he hopes Trump will explain to him about the US president's conversation a day before he was with Putin. That proposal to halt attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure had not reached a 30-day unconditional ceasefire in which Kiev agreed to Washington's urges.
On Wednesday, Zelensky said he seemed open to the latest offers for a limited ceasefire, but that he thought that in such a ceasefire we needed to monitor our work.
“The only arguments he wouldn't attack energy sites and Putin's words are too few,” Zelensky said. “War has made us practical people.”
Ukraine prepares a list of sites that need to be protected. And surveillance said “Russia will not hit our objects, we will not hit theirs,” he told a press conference in Helsinki along with Finland's president Alexander Stubb.
Emphasizing the lack of trust between Ukraine and Russia, the two countries on Wednesday accused of attacks on each other's energy infrastructure.
Zelensky has characterized some of the conditions Putin has set for a wider ceasefire, including a request for a complete halt of foreign military and intelligence reporting aid to Ukraine, as an attempt to halt for time, allowing Russia to improve its position of the troops on the battlefield and its negotiation hands.
The Ukrainian president repeated the point after the call between Putin and Trump, saying that setting conditions made it clear that Russia did not want to end the war.
Zelensky has been on a cautious line with the White House since the tragic meeting at the Oval Office on February 28th, accusing Trump and Vice President JD Vance of not fully grateful for the support of the United States. The Trump administration temporarily suspends sharing all military aid and intelligence news with Ukraine in the aftermath of the conference. And Zelensky then tried to smooth out the relationship.
Although Ukraine's European allies have been cautiously welcoming the move to a ceasefire, they pledged further support for Kiev, reflecting concerns about the situation in Russia.
“It's yes or no. No, there's no condition,” Finnish president Stab told a press conference on Wednesday. “Ukraine has accepted a ceasefire without any form of condition. If Russia refuses to agree, it will need to increase its efforts to strengthen Ukraine and strengthen pressure on Russia.”
The 30-day ceasefire proposal, which Ukraine agreed after consultations with US Saudi Arabian officials, was even broader. It would have been applied to land, sky and seas, which was the first halt of hostilities since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine over three years ago. Zelensky said the long ceasefire that month was intended to give time for more fulfilling negotiations on long-term peace.
On Wednesday, he repeated that Ukraine would have a “red line” in such talks.
“For us, the red line is the recognition of the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine as Russian,” he said. “We don't agree with that.”
Anastasia Kuznietsova and Johanna Lemola contributed to the report.
