Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin during their phone call, March 18, 2025 (Drew Angerer/Gavriil Grigorov/Getty/AFP)

EA on ABC and BBC: The Trump-Putin Call on Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Tuesday’s Coverage: Trump Administration May Recognize Occupied Crimea as Part of Russia

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1816 GMT:

Reclaiming the diplomatic initiative, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed a “positive, very substantive, and frank conversation” with Donald Trump.

Only hours after Trump’s call with Vladimir Putin, Zelensky returned the focus to US-Ukraine discussions with the agreement that “Ukraine and the United States should continue working together to achieve a real end to the war and lasting peace”.

The President confirmed Ukraine’s readiness to implement the halt to attacks on energy infrastructure. He endorsed the US proposal of an unconditional ceasefire on the frontline, which has not been accepted by Putin.

Zelensky raised the possibility of the US bolstering air defenses, and he highlighted agreement on US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia — parallelling those between the Trump Administration and the Kremlin — in the near future: “

The President concluded:

I thanked President Trump and the American people for their support. I stressed that Ukrainians want peace, which is why Ukraine accepted the proposal for an unconditional ceasefire. I highlighted the importance of President Trump’s concept of peace through strength.

The White House readout echoed Zelensky’s summary of the “fantastic” conversation, with Trump agreeing to “find what was available” for air defense, but it added an important paragraph.

Trump also discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants. He said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise. American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

US ownership of the plants could lead to a de facto security guarantee to ensure their protection. It could also put pressure on Russia to end its occupation of the Zaporhizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, which it overran in southern Ukraine in March 2022.

UPDATE 1610 GMT:

An update on Donald Trump’s social media account, apparently written by White House staff, has hailed a
productive conversation with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Just completed a very good telephone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. It lasted approximately one hour.

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, and I will ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz to give an accurate description of the points discussed.

UPDATE 1420 GMT:

Donald Trump’s envoy, real estate developed Steve Witkoff, has insisted that Russia’s overnight drone and missile attacks on Ukraine did not break Vladimir Putin’s pledge to Donald Trump to halt strikes on energy infrastructure.

Witkoff claimed he had it “on good information” that “Putin issued an order within 10 minutes of his call with the President directing Russian forces not to be attacking any Ukrainian energy infrastructure”.

Thus, “any attacks that happened last night would have happened before that order was given,” he insisted.

He added:

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. He said that he was going to be operating in good faith to the President yesterday, and I take him at his word.

UPDATE 1413 GMT:

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged 372 soldiers in a prisoner swap brokered by the UAE.

Moscow returned 175 Ukrainian POWs and another “22 seriously wounded prisoners of war in need of urgent medical assistance”. Kyiv freed 175 Russian troops.

UPDATE 1355 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb have made further comments, in an appearance before students at the University of Helsinki.

Stubb spoke of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine which “shattered” the post-1989 world order in an “inflection point” for Europe similar to 1918, 1945, and 1989.

In the past three years, the world has changed more than in the past 30 years together.

We can get it more or less right, or we can even sort of just try to let it happen.

For me, the choice is very simple. We either have a multilateral world with rules and strong international institutions, and an order, or we have a multipolar world, which is disorderly and based on transactions and deals.

Zelensky followed up, “Our fight for independence of Ukraine is ultimately a war for the freedom of all of Europe.”

Calling for a continued firm stance against the invasion, he said, “We have to be positive because of our people, because of our heroic soldiers, and because of our friends.”

UPDATE 1049 GMT:

At the joint press conference in Finland, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has put a constructive spin on Donald Trump’s call with Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky said, “We hope that America will continue to work and pressure Russia..to implement everything,” with an unconditional ceasefire “one of the initial steps towards peace”.

I believe that this year, the war can end with a dignified peace, but the security guarantees are definitely needed, otherwise Putin will come with the war again. That is his essence.

He emphasized that Kyiv “will not agree” to recognition of occupied Ukrainian territories as Russian.

Finland President Alex Stubb echoed, “This is such an important moment in international relations and history…because in Europe there has been no serious territorial acquisition of takeover through force [since World War II], and we do not want that to happen again.”

Zelensky said he will reach out to Donald Trump later today to “discuss some details of the next steps with him” and to “hear the details of his conversation with Putin”.

He emphasized that the “next steps cannot be done without us” and said of the Russia ultimatum for a halt to military aid and intelligence support for Ukraine: “Nobody can influence the US on…aid to Ukraine, or other countries.”

Putin’s ultimatum “signals about the continuation of the war”, he noted.

I believe that there should be no compromises in the aid to Ukraine. We must strengthen, in contrary, the aid to Ukraine, because that is a signal that Ukraine is ready against any surprises from the Russians.

UPDATE 1002 GMT:

Speaking alongside Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in Helsinki, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb has summarized:

The only solution is that Russia ends its war of aggression in Ukraine.

Ukraine has an undeniable right to defend itself on its own and supported by its partners.

This right cannot be restricted in any way, not now, and not in the future.

Stubb said the call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump was “a step in the right direction”, but he noted Russia’s restatement of its demands.

There are only two ways to respond to the proposal of the President of the United States. It’s a yes or a no. No buts, no conditions.

Ukraine accepted a ceasefire without any forms of conditions.

If Russia refuses to agree, we need to increase our efforts to strengthen Ukraine and ratchet up pressure on Russia to convince them to come to the negotiating table.

UPDATE 0945 GMT:

Reinforcing his ultimata to Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has told business representatives that he is ready to launch an offensive on Odesa if Kyiv refuses to recognize Russia’s “annexation” of Crimea and the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.

Participants in the closed meeting of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs told the Russian outlet Kommersant of Putin’s threat.

The Russian leader said that, in addition to Odesa, Moscow may also lay claim to other territories currently under Ukraine’s control.

UPDATE 0933 GMT:

European Union foreign policy head Kaja Kallas has summarized Donald Trump’s call with Vladimir Putin: “If you read the two readouts from the call, it is clear that…Russia does not really want to make any kind of concessions.”

The head of the European Council, António Costa, said:

Naturally, Russia’s neighbors are most concerned by Russia – that goes without saying. But what is essential is for everyone to understand that this is a collective threat.

He spoke of the urgency of rearmament.

It’s a question of timeframe. The equipment we need now, we should buy where it is available – from Europe, South Korea, Japan, the United States or Turkey.

“Obviously if you look longer term, what matters is not just procurement but production. And for that we need to reinforce our industrial and technological base – which we are already doing.

UPDATE 0922 GMT:

At least two civilians were killed and at least 18 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Despite Vladimir Putin’s declaration to Donald Trump of a halt to attacks on energy infrastructure, Russia launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles, four S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, and 145 drones on 12 regions overnight.

Air defenses downed 72 UAVs, and 56 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

In the Kharkiv region, a 45-year-old woman was killed and four people injured when a Russian drone hit a service car of a utility company.

Three people were wounded in Slovyansk in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Part of the city lost electricity.

Seven people were injured in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine. Four apartment buildings and 29 houses were damaged.

A 60-year-old man was injured in the Kyiv region, and two hospitals were hit by drones in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine. Drones also struck the railway power grid in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine.

UPDATE 0823 GMT:

Donald Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, says US-Russia talks are expected to continue on Sunday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Witkoff did not say if Ukraine and European partners will be invited.

Asked about “reciprocity” over Russia’s demand that Ukraine should not be able to rearm, Witkoff evaded the question:

I think the devil is in the details. We’ve got a team going to Saudi Arabia, led by our National Security Advisor and our Secretary of State, and I think, you know, we’ve got to figure out those details.

Witkoff hailed Trump and Vladimir Putin as “these two great leaders coming together for the betterment of mankind”.

“It was honestly a privilege and an honor for me to set sit there and listen to that conversation,” he said.

UPDATE 0818 GMT:

Germany’s Defense minister Boris Pistorius says Vladimir Putin is “playing a game” on Ukraine, as Putin’s phone call with Donald Trump was followed by Russian drone strikes.

“We’ve seen that attacks on civilian infrastructure have not eased at all in the first night after this supposedly groundbreaking, great phone call,” Pistorius said in a TV interview.

The Defense Minister criticized the Kremlin’s “unacceptable” ultimatum that other countries halt military aid and intelligence support to Kyiv.

“This is very transparent,” Pistorius said of Putin’s aim to prevent partners “further supporting Ukraine and enabling it to really defend itself if there is another attack, during or after a ceasefire”.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Vladimir Putin used a two-hour phone call with Donald Trump on Tuesday to reassert Russia’s ultimata over its 37-month invasion of Ukraine.

Trying to reclaim the initiative from the Kyiv-US proposal for a 30-day interim ceasefire, Putin gave Trump the prize of a temporary halt to attacks on energy infrastructure. He deferred any commitment over assaults at sea or on the frontline.

The Russian’s broader objective was to restate “a number of significant points” emphasizing his demands. The Kremlin’s statement stressed that the “key condition” for further talks is that other countries “completely cease” foreign military aid and intelligence sharing for Ukraine.

These included “effective control” over any ceasefire along the line of conflict; a halt to mobilization of Ukrainians and rearming of its armed forces — with no corresponding commitment on the Russian side; and the requirement to “eliminate the root causes of the crisis” — phrasing to cover the ultimata for a weak, “neutral” Ukraine with no security guarantees from the West, and possibly for the removal of the Zelensky Government.

In its readout, the White House omitted the Russian ultimata. Instead, it highlighted the pause of attacks on energy infrastructure and talks for “implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire, and permanent peace”, with negotiations in the Middle East.

Significantly, the White House did not say if Ukraine and European powers will be part of the talks, or whether the US and Russia will return to the direct discussions that they launched last month in Saudi Arabia.

Trump and Putin emphasized the removal of sanctions on Moscow by declaring that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside”.

“This includes enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved,” they said.

Putin informed Trump of plans for a Russian-Ukrainian swap of 175 prisoners of war on each side, and “as a gesture of goodwill”, a further release of 23 “seriously wounded” Ukrainian servicemen.

Trump posted a simplistic summary on his Truth Social platform about the “very good and productive” conversation:

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.

In an interview on Fox TV, he repeated the falsehood that Putin’s forces had encircled about 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region in western Russia.

Asked about Putin’s demand for an immediate cessation of aid to Ukraine, Trump declared: “No, we didn’t talk about aid, actually, we didn’t talk about aid at all. We talked about a lot of things but aid was never discussed.”

Zelensky: “The Pressure on Russia Must Continue”

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky noted late Tuesday that, despite Putin’s supposed agreement to a partial ceasefire, Russia had launched around 40 drones. He reported strikes on civilian infrastructure, including a direct hit on a hospital in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine.

It is these types of nighttime attacks by Russia that destroy our energy sector, our infrastructure, and the normal life of Ukrainians. And the fact that this night is no exception shows that the pressure on Russia must continue for the sake of peace.

Zelensky called out Putin’s tactics and appealed for an effective international response:

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.

Sanctions against Russia. Assistance to Ukraine. Strengthening allies in the free world and working toward security guarantees. And only a real cessation of strikes on civilian infrastructure by Russia, as proof of its willingness to end this war, can bring peace closer.

Earlier in the evening, Zelensky had endorsed the mutual halt of attacks oninfrastructure but said he was waiting for “details” of what Putin and Trump had agreed.