Russia rejects full cease-fire, but agrees to stop attacks on energy and ‘infrastructure’ in two-hour Trump call
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected President Trump’s proposal of a full, unconditional cease-fire with Ukraine on Tuesday, but agreed to halt attacks on “energy and infrastructure” — sectors Kyiv has recently, and successfully, targeted.
Elsewhere in the two-hour phone call, the Russian president demanded that Trump cut all military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, according to a readout from the Kremlin.
A White House summary of the call did not mention the bold ask and American aid continued to flow Tuesday. Trump in a Fox News interview denied the leaders discussed aid “at all.”
Trump was apparently able to secure one element of his cease-fire proposal, as the Kremlin announced Russia and Ukraine would release 175 of each other’s prisoners of war, with Moscow also freeing “23 seriously wounded Ukrainian servicemen” to receive treatment in their home country.
Despite Putin failing to back down, Trump called the call “very good and productive” in a post to Truth Social.
“We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine,” he said.
“This War would have never started if I were President!” Trump added. “Many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed, including the fact that thousands of soldiers are being killed, and both President Putin and President Zelenskyy would like to see it end.”
However, the Kremlin specified that only “energy infrastructure” would be subject to the ceasefire, should Kyiv agree — meaning Russia’s attacks on other civilian infrastructure would continue.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters Tuesday afternoon that “if there is a partial ceasefire, this is a positive result” — but also expressed “skepticism” Russia would stick to its word, according to ABC News.
About an hour after the Kremlin said Putin “immediately gave the Russian military the appropriate command,” Russia broke the cease-fire with an attack affecting the energy grid in Sloviansk, Ukraine.
“Putin backed Trump’s 30-day pause on energy strikes—then broke his word in less than an hour. Russia hit Sloviansk’s energy infrastructure, leaving half the city without power,” Ukrainian Member of Parliament Inna Sovsun posted to X. “Shocking? Absolutely not.”
Moscow is seeking the “energy infrastructure” cease-fire after Ukraine targeted multiple Russian oil facilities in recent weeks.
On March 11, Kyiv launched a drone attack on Moscow Oil Refinery, which provides the Russian capital with about half of its diesel and gasoline needs.
Though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to Trump’s provisional proposal of an unconditional cease-fire last week, it is unclear whether Kyiv would agree to the modified truce discussed by the American and Russian leaders.
“Russia has an interest in stopping the Ukrainian strikes on its energy infrastructure,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies Russia expert John Hardie told The Post. “Moscow and Kyiv quietly held preliminary talks on such a cease-fire last year, though they ultimately broke down.”
Russia has also targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure, often timing their heaviest attacks to the start of each winter, as temperatures drop and civilians need energy and gas for heat.
Trump welcomed Russia’s willingness to stop attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, but discussions will continue on how to achieve the rest of the US president’s cease-fire aims, the White House said.
“The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on the implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace,” the White House said in a statement. “These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.”
Hardie said Putin likely offered the restricted cease-fire to further delay talks and make Trump believe Moscow was willing to give something.
“Putin needed to appear constructive. He wasn’t ready to agree to an unconditional comprehensive cease-fire, but rejecting everything Trump proposed would have been risky,” Hardie said.
“Putin wants to keep Trump focused on luring Russia to the negotiating table rather than seeking to compel Russia via sanctions or other means.”
Trump and his national security team have been trying to get Putin to agree to the same 30-day deal Kyiv assented to last week following talks in Saudi Arabia.
The US proposal was designed to reveal which party to the war was ready to talk peace, administration officials have said. It involved no terms other than a commitment to diplomatic talks, a pause on all hostilities, the exchange of prisoners of war and the return of Ukrainian children that Russians have kidnapped.
Since the start of the Trump administration, the president has been pushing for Russia and Ukraine to first “stop the killing,” then hold negotiations under a cease-fire, according to the special envoy to Ukraine, Gen. Keith Kellogg.
Ahead of the scheduled call, Putin appeared in no hurry to pick up the phone to chat with Trump about the truce proposal.
At 5:30 p.m. Moscow time, Putin was still on stage at the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, speaking to oligarchs about “the decline of ‘Western dominance,” according to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
In a video clip from the summit, an interviewer reminded Putin that his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had indicated the Russia president’s phone call with Trump was “supposed to last until” 6 p.m.
Putin waved off the comment, indicating that he could stay on stage for longer and joking: “I don’t listen [to Peskov].”
The Kremlin tyrant could have signed the cease-fire on Friday, when special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff went to Moscow to present Putin with the agreement that Ukraine had inked two days before.
Putin sent Witkoff home to Washington with little more than a demand that Trump call him directly to discuss the potential deal.
The Russian president made the Americans wait for him that day as well, putting Witkoff off for roughly eight hours — a period that included a dinner with Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko, according to Kremlin reports.
But Trump insisted reports that Witkoff was left waiting were incorrect, claiming that the envoy was meeting with low-level Russian officials rather than cooling his heels.
