By Jeff Mason and Joseph Ax
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Tuesday to temporarily stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities but declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire that President Donald Trump hoped would be the first step toward a permanent peace deal.
Ukraine said it would support the scaled-back agreement, which would require both countries to hold off on firing on each other’s energy infrastructure for 30 days. Experts said Putin avoided making significant concessions in what could be a play for time as Russian troops advance in eastern Ukraine.
Talks aimed at advancing toward a broader peace plan will begin immediately, the White House said following a lengthy call between the two leaders, but it was unclear whether Ukraine will be involved.
Putin ordered the Russian military to stop attacks against energy sites after speaking with Trump, the Kremlin said in a statement. But he again raised concerns during the call that a temporary ceasefire might allow Ukraine to mobilize more soldiers and rearm itself.
Putin also emphasized that any resolution of the conflict would require an end to all military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, the Kremlin added.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country would support the U.S. proposal to stop strikes on energy facilities and infrastructure.
“I think it will be right that we will have a conversation with President Trump and we will know in detail what the Russians offered the Americans or what the Americans offered the Russians,” Zelenskiy told reporters during an online briefing.
Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine’s east and pushing back Ukrainian troops from Russia’s Kursk region.
Negotiations on a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, as well as a more complete ceasefire and a permanent peace deal, will commence immediately in the Middle East, the White House said in a statement.
Kristine Berzina, managing director of the German Marshall Fund think tank, called the limited ceasefire “a very small step forward,” noting the United States did not secure the deal it wanted.
“This call brought to light how difficult of an interlocutor Russia is going to be and the general unwillingness of Russia to talk about making real progress in stopping this war,” she said.
Since Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion, Ukraine has tried to fight back against its much larger neighbor with drone and missile strikes deep in Russian territory, including on energy facilities. Those attacks, which Moscow says amount to terrorism, have allowed Kyiv to keep pressure on Russia’s economy.
That means a ceasefire on attacking energy infrastructure could benefit Russia, said Maria Snegovaya, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In a social media post after the call, Trump said he and Putin had agreed to work quickly toward a ceasefire and eventually a permanent peace agreement.
“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,” he wrote, using an alternate spelling for the Ukrainian leader.
Ukraine said on March 11 it was prepared to accept a full 30-day ceasefire, a step that U.S. officials said would lead to a more substantial round of negotiations to end Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two. The war has killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions and reduced entire towns to rubble.
Trump has hinted that a permanent peace deal could include territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Zelenskiy, who arrived in Helsinki for an official visit on Tuesday shortly after Trump and Putin’s call ended, said Europe must be included in Ukraine peace talks.
The talks between Trump and Putin came as Israel resumed its attacks on Hamas in Gaza, threatening a fragile truce and underscoring the difficulty of securing lasting ceasefires in long-running conflicts.
The two leaders also discussed how to prevent future conflicts in the Middle East and “shared the view that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel,” the White House said.
U.S. SHIFT WORRIES EUROPEAN ALLIES
The agreement on a narrow ceasefire reflects Trump’s desire to normalize relations with Russia and suggests that Putin may be playing for time, said Susan Colbourn, an expert on European security issues at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
“It was striking how little concession Trump is asking from the Russians, although they invaded their neighbor,” Colbourn said.
The U.S. president’s overtures to Putin since returning to the White House in January have alarmed U.S. allies.
Ukraine and its Western allies have long described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an imperialist land grab, and Zelenskiy has accused Putin of deliberately prolonging the war.
Zelenskiy says Ukraine’s sovereignty is not negotiable and Russia must surrender the territory it has seized.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned on Tuesday that Russia had massively expanded its military-industrial production capacity in preparation for “future confrontation with European democracies.”
Speaking at a press conference in Berlin with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the limited ceasefire was an important first step but again called for a complete ceasefire. He reiterated that Ukraine must be part of any final decision.
Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and most of four eastern Ukrainian regions following its invasion in February 2022. All told, it controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
Putin said he sent troops into Ukraine because NATO’s creeping expansion threatened Russia’s security. He has demanded Ukraine drop any ambition of joining the Western military alliance.
Putin has also said Russia must keep control of Ukrainian territory it has seized, Western sanctions should be eased and Kyiv must stage a presidential election. Zelenskiy, elected in 2019, has remained in office under martial law he imposed because of the war.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason in Washington; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Andrea Shalal, Nandita Bose, Costas Pitas and Ismail Shakil in Washington; Mark Trevelyan, Andrew Osborn, Darya Korsunskaya and Maxim Rodionov in London and Miranda Murray in Berlin; Writing by Joseph Ax and James Oliphant; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Jonathan Boyle, Rod Nickel and Don Durfee)
