Zelenskyy agrees to partial ceasefire after conversation with Trump

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed Wednesday to a partial ceasefire with Russia focused on “energy and other civilian infrastructure.” Zelenskyy, who spoke after an hour-long phone call with President Donald Trump, said it was a first step in what the Ukrainian leader said he hoped would be “lasting peace” more than three years after his country was invaded by Moscow.

The 30-day ceasefire would be the most concrete result yet of Trump’s effort to end the war in Ukraine. It comes a day after Trump had a lengthy conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to broker a deal and also to restore broader relations with the Kremlin, which have been mostly frozen since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Both Trump and Zelenskyy characterized their conversation as positive, a notable shift following their most recent direct encounter that resulted in the Ukrainian leader’s ejection from the White House, which had no modern precedent. Zelenskyy told reporters that Wednesday’s exchange was “the most substantive and positive one in recent times.”

Still, the conversation between Trump and Zelenskyy and the timing was just the most recent evidence of how Ukraine has been relegated to the back seat in talks about its future. It came amid questions about whether Putin would live up to the commitments he made to Trump to stop strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure – pledges that fell short of the full ceasefire that Trump was originally seeking.

“Just completed a very good telephone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “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. We are very much on track.”

Trump said the call lasted an hour.

“We believe that together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership, lasting peace can be achieved this year,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. “One of the first steps toward fully ending the war could be ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure. I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it.”

He said he hoped that the ceasefire could broaden.

Ukraine was preparing a list of sites that could not be hit, including railways and ports. It remained unclear on Wednesday whether Russia would adhere to the deal that the White House said it had agreed to, since the Kremlin on Tuesday announced that it would engage only in a narrower pause in strikes on “energy infrastructure.” That would leave railways and ports as targets. Asked about the discrepancy on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the White House account was correct.

In a virtual news conference late Wednesday from Finland, where he was on an official visit, Zelenskyy said he remained skeptical that Russia would honor the agreement, noting that as he spoke there were 107 self-detonating Shahed-136 drones flying above Ukraine.

Still, he said he remained optimistic that a ceasefire would “open up opportunities.”

“This is why I believe the war can be ended quickly – because once a ceasefire is in place, even if one side attempts provocations, there is still political will, publicly announced to the world,” he said.

He also pressed Trump on the importance of advanced air defense systems and how a “real shield” would help defend Ukrainian cities and allow airports to operate again – perhaps permitting a visit from Trump.

“Imagine him flying into Ukraine – arriving in one of our cities, whether it’s Odessa or Kharkiv – seeing firsthand how his support helped people, how they fought and how they continue to live,” Zelenskyy said. “I think these are the right steps.”

Zelenskyy has been struggling to navigate a White House that has at times been openly hostile to him and friendlier to Putin. Trump last month called the democratically elected Zelenskyy a “dictator” and told him that “you don’t have the cards right now.” White House officials continued their deferential approach to Putin on Wednesday, praising him for his willingness to discuss peace in Ukraine.

Still, Trump and other senior White House officials appeared Wednesday to have softened their tone toward Zelenskyy and Kyiv after weeks of tough words for the Ukrainian leader. On Wednesday, Leavitt said Washington plans to continue to supply Kyiv with military and intelligence assistance following a days-long pause earlier this month, despite Kremlin requests for a halt.

Leavitt also said that after Zelenskyy asked for additional air defense systems, especially the powerful U.S.-made Patriot systems, Trump “agreed to work with him to find what was available, particularly in Europe.”

She also expressed a U.S. interest in owning and operating Ukrainian nuclear power plants, saying that the two leaders had discussed the issue during their Wednesday call.

Ukraine and Russia swapped 175 prisoners on Wednesday, another element of Tuesday’s discussion with Russia.

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff dismissed Ukrainian reports that Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure continued overnight despite Putin’s claimed order to halt fire on those targets.

“President Putin issued an order within 10 minutes of his call with the president, directing Russian forces not to be attacking any Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” Witkoff told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday. “Any attacks that happened last night would have happened before that order was given. In fact, the Russians tell me this morning that seven of their drones were on their way when President Putin issued his order, and they were shot down by Russian forces. So I tend to believe that President Putin is operating in good faith.”

Zelenskyy said Wednesday that there were extensive Russian attacks overnight, including on energy infrastructure. Authorities said that one strike hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk, damaging the city’s electricity grid. The regional prosecutor’s office said the strike took place at 8:50 p.m. local time, more than two hours after the call ended. Regional police said power lines and a gas pipeline were hit in the strike. But it wasn’t immediately clear whether they were deliberately targeted.

Russia’s broader attack on Ukraine continued after the call between Trump and Putin. Ukrainian authorities said 145 Russian drones attacked in the hours after the phone call. The attacks hit two hospitals in Ukraine’s Sumy region and destroyed nine homes in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Ukraine, meanwhile, hit an oil depot in Russia’s Krasnodar region, igniting a fire that more than 170 firefighters were dispatched to get under control in what the Russian Defense Ministry called a disruption of “peace initiatives.” Ukrainian leaders weren’t formally briefed on the Trump-Putin call until Wednesday.

Top officials in Kyiv expressed skepticism about whether Putin would live up to his side of the bargain.

“After the announcement of an ‘air truce,’ we didn’t give our air defense crews a break – we simply watched the clock. Less than an hour after #Putin supposedly agreed not to strike Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and had allegedly ‘issued the relevant orders,’ he attacked the energy infrastructure in eastern Ukraine,” Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on X. “The response to President #Trump’s peace initiatives was the arrival of 150 Shahed drones, built by Russians using Iranian blueprints, targeting civilian infrastructure.”

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Johnson reported from Kyiv. Serhiy Morgunov in Stuttgart, Germany, and Robyn Dixon in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.