( MSN )
A call between President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin ended with a limited agreement for Russia and Ukraine to cease attacks on energy infrastructure. It stopped short of a U.S. proposal for a temporary truce.
The U.S. said after the call that Russia agreed to an energy and infrastructure ceasefire. After Moscow and Kyiv agree to stop hitting each other's power plants and electric grids, negotiators would move on to a potential halt in fighting on the Black Sea and then to a full ceasefire in the three-year-old Ukraine war, a White House statement said.
The White House said that discussions would begin immediately in the Middle East.
Trump's team has been engaging in shuttle diplomacy, meeting with representatives for Moscow and Kyiv separately, to nail down a ceasefire agreement and framework for a peace deal that could permanently end the war. Trump promised a rapid end to the conflict during his White House campaign while touting his dealmaking skills, but has has been unable to bring about a resolution so far.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff visited Moscow last week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke Saturday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The interactions followed in-person talks with top Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia and set the stage for Tuesday's call between Putin and Trump.
The call lasted for at least an hour and a half, the White House indicated. Officials declined to say how much longer the phone call went.
A readout from the White House on the call provided scant details. On Monday, the president said he intended to lay the groundwork for a peace deal and implore Putin to spare the lives of Ukrainian soldiers who have been under siege from Russian forces.
Last week the U.S. restored intelligence sharing with Ukraine and lifted a pause on military assistance, as officials awaited Russia's response to the temporary truce.
Ukraine agreed to a full 30-day ceasefire on the condition that Russia also accepts the terms of the agreement. That proposal called for a temporary freeze the conflict and halt an intense aerial battle between the two nations.
Disputed territory could be monitored during that time with satellites, intelligence and drones.
Zelenskyy's government has also pushed for Russia to agree to a prisoner exchange, the release of detained civilians and the return of kidnapped Ukrainian children during talks.
The Ukrainian president has long been wary of Putin's willingness to abide by a ceasefire. He said Monday that Russia has already had a week to agree to the terms of the truce that the U.S. laid out and additional pressure would need to come to bear on Putin to force his hand.
"It’s clear to everyone in the world—even to those who refused to acknowledge the truth for the past three years—that it is Putin who continues to drag out this war," Zelenskyy said. "He’s saying whatever he wants, but not what the whole world wants to hear."
What's under negotiation?
U.S. officials have said since the talks began that Ukraine would have to make concessions. They range from territory to NATO membership and include a battle for control of Europe's largest nuclear power plant.
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and launched a large-scale attack against Ukraine in 2022. It has is currently in control of roughly 20% of Ukraine's territory, much of it in the east.
Trump indicated over the weekend that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine has been the topic of early discussion. The plant is under Russian occupation.
"We'll be talking about land. We'll be talking about power plants because that's a big question, but I think we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides," Trump told reporters on Sunday evening.
Ukraine is all but certain to lose out on NATO membership for the foreseeable future, U.S. officials have signaled, and it will have to give up at least some of the territory that Russia forcibly seized.
"The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine, and obviously it’ll be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable time period to sort of force the Russians back all the way to where they were in 2014," Rubio said last week. "So the only solution to this war is diplomacy and getting them to a table where that’s possible."
Russia has said that NATO membership for Ukraine, which it has used as a pretext for its war, is a nonstarter in the negotiations. It has also rejected a UK-led proposal to put European peacekeepers in Ukraine that France has also given its backing.
Ukraine has said it will not sign a peace agreement without firm security guarantees, citing Russia's history of violating ceasefires.
Kyiv gave up its nuclear arsenal after the collapse of the Soviet Union in exchange for security assurances from the U.S., UK and Russia. The invasion of Crimea in 2014 violated the memorandum, which explicitly barred unprompted military action against Ukraine and promised its territorial integrity.
Trump has abstained from making future security guarantees, beyond an unsigned critical minerals agreement that would benefit the U.S. financially if private companies invest in the development of Ukraine's natural resources. He has offered his support to a European fighting force without detailing any potential U.S. involvement.
"There is also a broader strategy at play in President Trump’s approach to this war that is informed by the realization that the United States needs to reset relations with Russia," said Trump's special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg said at a Council on Foreign Relations event in Washington this month.
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