(AFP) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday held talks with Donald Trump to hear details about the US leader’s call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin for a lasting ceasefire to end the grinding three-year conflict. Kyiv said Zelensky was being briefed about Tuesday’s 90-minute call between Trump and Putin that saw the Kremlin leader agree to a limited 30-day halt on strikes against Ukraine’s power grid.
Despite both Ukraine and Russia saying they backed a temporary truce, each accused the other of failing to adhere to halt strikes on energy infrastructure. Ukraine’s defence ministry said an overnight barrage of Russian missile and drones struck the war-battered nation, killing one person and damaging two hospitals. “Today Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire,” said Zelensky. Ukraine’s national railway service said the barrage had hit railway energy infrastructure in the central Dnipropetrovsk region. “So much for a pause in the attacks on the energy sector or an energy truce executed by the enemy!” a railway statement added.
Russia’s defence ministry reported a “deliberate” Ukrainian attack overnight on an oil depot in the south of the country, which they said was aimed at “derailing” Trump’s attempts to broker an end to the fighting. “These attacks are countering our common efforts,” added Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, referring to the US-Russian talks. In Washington, US envoy Steve Witkoff said technical talks on a possible deal to end the war would begin in Saudi Arabia on Monday. He predicted that a ceasefire agreement could be reached “within a couple of weeks”. He told Bloomberg Television that a meeting in the kingdom between Trump and Putin was “likely” but offered no timeline.
Zelensky warned before his call with Trump against making “any concessions” to Russia after Putin, in his call to Trump, demanded an end to Western military aid to Ukraine during any ceasefire. Putin told Trump that for a full ceasefire to work, Ukraine must not be allowed to rearm and must halt mandatory mobilisation. Kyiv countered that it would be left vulnerable to further Russian attacks. It wants the United States to oversee a ceasefire against energy infrastructure.
On Wednesday, Russia and Ukraine exchanged 372 prisoners, Moscow said, which was planned “as a goodwill gesture”. Trump’s overtures to Putin and indications Washington will no longer guarantee European security have spooked the United States’s NATO allies and prompted moves towards a steep increase in domestic defence spending. Zelensky has accused Russia of not being “ready to end this war” and in Kyiv, war-weary Ukrainians were prone to agree. “I don’t believe Putin at all, not a single word. He only understands force,” said Lev Sholoudko, 32.
In Moscow, locals were more optimistic the talks could bring an end to the fighting — to Russia’s advantage. “Definitely this is in our favour,” said one Moscow resident, Larisa, 46. “There is no other way. What happened in 1945 will happen now,” she added, referring to the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. Trump, who says he has an “understanding” with Putin, stunned the world in February when he started direct talks with Russia to end the conflict, sparking fears among allies that he would capitulate to Moscow’s demands. Trump hailed the call with Putin as “good and productive”. The Kremlin statement after the talks referred to “energy infrastructure”. Trump’s interpretation is the broader “energy and infrastructure”, which would include all civil infrastructure and not just energy-specific sites like power stations, transformers, and oil installations.
Trump acknowledged in an interview on Fox News that pressing Putin into a full ceasefire would be tough as “Russia has the advantage”. Since seizing Crimea in 2014 and launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Moscow now occupies around a fifth of Ukraine. Washington has made clear that Ukraine will likely have to cede territory in any deal. The UK and French governments have been trying to assemble a so-called “coalition of the willing” to protect any ceasefire in Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron vowed after the Kremlin statement that they would keep sending military aid to Ukraine. “Ukraine can count on us,” Scholz said.
But soldiers on Ukraine’s front line remained doubtful peace could soon be at hand. “How can you trust people who attack you and kill civilians, including children?” said Oleksandr, 35, who has returned to military training in the Donetsk region after being wounded in combat.
burs-phz/jj – Stanislav DOSHCHITSYN
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