Putin agrees to 30-day halt on energy facility strikes but no full Ukraine ceasefire

March 19, 2025 MeighTimbol News, Politics 0
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands during a bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
REUTERS | Published March 19, 2025
WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Tuesday to stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities temporarily 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 firing on each other’s energy infrastructure for about a month. Experts said Putin avoided making significant concessions in what could be a play for time as Russian troops advance in eastern Ukraine.
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The White House said talks on a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea as well as a more complete ceasefire and a permanent peace deal would begin immediately, following a lengthy call between Trump and Putin on Tuesday.
It was unclear whether Ukraine would be involved in those talks, which Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
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“Up until recently, we really didn’t have consensus around these two aspects – the energy and infrastructure ceasefire and the Black Sea moratorium on firing – and today we got to that place, and I think it’s a relatively short distance to a full ceasefire from there,” Witkoff told Fox News “Hannity” program.
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The Kremlin did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment, outside business hours, on Witkoff’s remarks.
Putin ordered the Russian military to stop attacks against energy sites after speaking with Trump, the Kremlin said.
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But he raised concerns that a temporary ceasefire might allow Ukraine to rearm and mobilize more soldiers, and doubled down on his demand that any resolution required an end to all military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, according to a Kremlin statement.
Trump told Fox News aid to Ukraine did not come up in the conversation.
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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country would support the proposal to stop strikes on energy facilities and infrastructure for 30 days. He said Russia launched more than 40 drones late on Tuesday, hitting a hospital in Sumy and other areas, including the Kyiv region that surrounds the Ukrainian capital.
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“Today, Putin de facto rejected the proposal for a complete ceasefire. It would be right for the world to reject in response any attempts by Putin to drag out the war,” Zelenskiy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
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Trump, who has had a complicated relationship with Zelenskiy, spoke positively of his call with Putin.
“We had a great call. It lasted almost two hours,” Trump said on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle” show.
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But the U.S. president did not get what he wanted. Ukraine, which Trump had previously described as being more difficult to work with than Russia, had agreed to the U.S. proposal for a full 30-day ceasefire. Putin did not.
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“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,” said Kristine Berzina, a managing director at the German Marshall Fund think tank. She called the limited ceasefire “a very small step forward.”
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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.
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That means a ceasefire on attacking energy infrastructure could benefit Russia, said Maria Snegovaya, senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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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.
Firefighters work to control a fire in a location given as Odesa, Ukraine, after a Russian drone attack damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa, triggering power cuts in the city and knocking out heating systems, according to local officials, in this screengrab taken… Purchase Licensing Rights
“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.
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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.
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Trump has hinted that a permanent peace deal could include territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
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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.
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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.
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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

Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine’s east and pushing back Ukrainian troops from Russia’s Kursk region.
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.
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“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.
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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.
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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.”
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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 2022. All told, it controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
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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.
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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.

 

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SOURCE: www.reuters.com

RELATED: Trump-Putin call: What they agreed to and what’s next for Ukraine war

Putin agreed to a 30-day halt of attacks on energy infrastructure during a call with Trump but did not agree to an immediate ceasefire.

AL JAZEERA | Published March 19, 2025

Russia and Ukraine are trading blame for continued air attacks on civilian targets in Ukrainian regions Sumy and Donetsk and on energy targets in Russia’s Krasnodar since Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a 30-day halt on attacks on energy infrastructure targets in Ukraine following a phone call with United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

So will the halt on energy attacks be the first step to securing peace in Ukraine, or was it merely a stalling tactic to let the war drag on? Here is what we know so far.

What did Trump and Putin agree to? What did they not agree to?

Trump and Putin had a lengthy telephone call in which they discussed the ongoing Russian war with Ukraine.

Following the call, the White House and the Kremlin announced that the two leaders had agreed on a 30-day pause on attacks on energy infrastructure targets in Russia and Ukraine.

However, Putin stopped short of agreeing to cease missile, drone and bomb attacks in the Black Sea and across the front line. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to the 30-day ceasefire proposal from Trump on March 11.

Russia and the US said they would begin talks on the terms for a ceasefire in the Black Sea.

There were some differences between the statements released by the White House and the Kremlin, leading to uncertainty among observers and analysts. In particular, Russia included several demands in its statement while the White House made no reference to them.

“There is a lot we don’t know because there’s a difference between what the White House and Kremlin have reported from this call,” Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at the London-based Chatham House think tank, told Al Jazeera.

“At the moment, peace seems further away as a result of Russia’s additional demands,” Giles said.

What did the White House say?

The White House statement is shorter than that released by the Kremlin and does not spell out the demands made by Putin to achieve a complete ceasefire. The statement includes the following:

  • Both Trump and Putin have agreed that the conflict needs to end and lasting peace needs to be established. “The blood and treasure that both Ukraine and Russia have been spending in this war would be better spent on the needs of their people,” the statement reads.
  • The US and Russia will expand their bilateral relationship.
  • While the move towards peace will begin with a halt on targeting energy infrastructure, technical negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East on bringing maritime peace to the Black Sea, as well as a full ceasefire and permanent peace. A specific location was not given for these talks, but in February and March, mediators from the US separately met representatives from Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia.
  • The two leaders discussed cooperating on their approach to the Middle East to prevent future conflicts and agreed that “Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel”.

What did the Kremlin say?

According to the Kremlin statement, Putin laid down a series of conditions to be met before the parties can advance towards a ceasefire across the Russia-Ukraine front line. The Kremlin’s statement included the following:

  • Putin expressed gratitude to Trump for his desire to help end the war. The US and Russia will work on improving bilateral ties.
  • Putin has agreed to Trump’s request for a 30-day pause on attacks on energy infrastructure and immediately commanded the Russian military to follow through.
  • The Russian president expressed a fundamental commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine war in collaboration with his US partners, which would be long-term and sustainable. Russian and US expert groups are being created to work out terms for a settlement in Ukraine.
  • To achieve a ceasefire across the line of contact, Moscow raised concerns about the rearmament of Ukrainian forces, as well as “forced mobilisation”, referring to claims that Ukrainian men have been rounded up and forced to enlist in the army.
  • The statement claimed that “barbaric terrorist crimes” had been committed by the Ukrainian army against civilians in Kursk.
  • It also stated that the key condition to resolving the conflict would be a “complete cessation” of foreign military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. The statement does not specify whether this would apply to aid sent by just the US or other allies of Ukraine as well.
  • In response to Trump’s appeal to spare the lives of Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk, Putin said Russia is ready to guarantee the lives and decent treatment of Ukrainian troops in accordance with Russian and international law if they surrender.
  • There will be negotiations between the US and Russia to work out specifics for a ceasefire in the Black Sea. The Russian statement did not specify whether Ukraine or other European nations would be included.
  • A prisoner exchange will take place on Wednesday, through which 175 Russians and 175 Ukrainians will be released. Additionally, 23 injured Ukrainian servicemen who are receiving treatment in Russian medical facilities will be handed over. There has so far been no news of such a swap taking place.
  • The US and Russia will make combined efforts to stabilise the situation in the Middle East.

How has Zelenskyy responded?

The Ukrainian president said Kyiv would support any attempt to bring peace to the region, but added that he wished to see specific details from Trump.

“We need to understand what exactly we support,” he said in a video message.

Calling Trump a “busy man”, Zelenskyy continued, “when [Trump] has time, he can call me any time … we are ready to talk through further steps.”

In reference to Putin’s demands for a cessation of military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, Zelenskyy, during a news conference with Finland’s President Alexander Stubb on Wednesday, said: “I do not believe that we should make any concessions in terms of assistance for Ukraine, but rather there should be an increase in assistance for Ukraine.”

After a fiery meeting in the Oval Office between Trump and Zelenskyy on February 28, in which the Ukrainian leader was admonished for not showing enough “gratitude” to the US for its aid, Washington paused military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. This assistance was restored when Washington and Kyiv agreed to peace terms on March 11. Experts said this assistance is crucial to Kyiv and its suspension temporarily left a gap that could not be bridged by Ukraine’s European allies.

Zelenskyy added that he would speak to Trump later on Wednesday to obtain more details of the phone call with Putin.

What has happened since Trump and Putin spoke?

In a post on his X account on Tuesday, Zelenskyy wrote that Russian drones had hit civilian infrastructure, including a hospital in Sumy, as well as cities in the Donetsk region.

“It is these types of nighttime attacks by Russia that destroy our energy sector, our infrastructure, and the normal life of Ukrainians,” wrote Zelenskyy.

“Today, Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire. It would be right for the world to respond by rejecting any attempts by Putin to prolong the war,” he wrote, adding that sanctions should be levied against Russia and assistance should be provided to Ukraine.

“Only a real cessation of strikes on civilian infrastructure by Russia, as proof of its willingness to end this war, can bring peace closer.”

On Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported that Ukraine had attacked an energy facility in the south of Russia’s Krasnodar region.

What energy infrastructure was being targeted in Russia and Ukraine?

In early March 2022, Russian troops occupied Zaphorizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, in southeast Ukraine. The power plant has six reactors with a capacity of 1 gigawatt each. In September 2022, hostilities near the site prompted Energoatom, the Ukrainian state agency in charge of the plant, to shut down the last reactor.

In retaliation, Ukraine has targeted Russian oil refineries and industrial sites. These attacks have ramped up since January. Ukraine has also been taking aim at Russia’s oil and gas pipelines and pumping stations. In February, the refineries were hit hard, impacting about 10 percent of Russian refining capacity, calculations made by the Reuters news agency based on traders’ data showed.

“It is clear the damage that Ukraine has been doing to Russia’s energy infrastructure is something Russia wants to stop,” said Giles.

 

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SOURCE: www.aljazeera.com

 

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