Putin Agrees to Limits on Energy Targets but Not Full Ukraine Cease-Fire

 

Putin Agrees to Limits on Energy Targets but Not Full Ukraine Cease-Fire

 

In a call with President Trump, Russia’s leader agreed to pause strikes on energy infrastructure. Ukraine also appeared willing to accept such a halt, though it fell short of the unconditional cease-fire the country had already agreed to.

 

David E. SangerPaul Sonne

By David E. Sanger and Paul Sonne

David E. Sanger reported from Washington and Paul Sonne from Berlin.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/us/politics/trump-putin-call-ukraine-russia-ceasefire.html

March 18, 2025

 

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia agreed for the first time on Tuesday to a limited cease-fire that would stop strikes on energy infrastructure, as long as Ukraine does the same, the Kremlin said in a statement.

 

But in a two-and-a-half-hour phone call with President Trump, the Russian leader declined for now to agree to a broader 30-day halt in fighting that U.S. and Ukrainian officials had proposed, meaning that the attacks on Ukrainian civilians, cities and ports will continue as the two sides vie for territory and an upper hand in negotiations.

 

Still, if strikes on energy infrastructure by both sides indeed stop, it would mark the first mutually agreed suspension of attacks in the three-year war, which the White House characterized as a first step toward a broader peace. But privately, some administration officials acknowledged that Mr. Putin appeared to be stalling, agreeing to just enough to appear to be engaged in peace talks, while pressing his advantage on the battlefield.

 

A cease-fire for energy targets would not only benefit Ukraine, which has struggled for years with Russia’s repeated attacks on its energy grid. It would also come as a relief to the Kremlin: Ukraine has conducted extensive strikes on oil and gas facilities deep into the Russian heartland, jeopardizing Moscow’s most crucial stream of state revenue.

 

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said he was awaiting a phone call from Mr. Trump to find out the details of his discussion with Mr. Putin, but noted he was open to a truce on strikes targeting energy infrastructure.

 

“Russia and Ukraine, through the mediation of the U.S., can agree not to attack energy infrastructure,” he told the Ukrainian public broadcaster, Suspilne, Tuesday night. “Our side will support this. But it cannot be the case that Russia attacks our energy sector and we remain silent. We will respond.”

 

In a later statement, he said Mr. Putin had “effectively rejected the proposal for a full cease-fire,” and accused Russia of continuing attacks, including a drone strike on a hospital in the northeastern city of Sumy. His claim could not be independently confirmed.

 

The American and Russian accounts of the call displayed the gulf that remains. Mr. Putin insisted that a long-lasting peace depended on a complete cessation of foreign military and intelligence assistance to Kyiv, the Kremlin said.

 

In essence, Mr. Putin was demanding an end to all of the military support for Ukraine that the United States and its allies have provided for three years. Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have been highly critical of the billions of dollars that the United States has spent on the war, but the White House made no reference to that part of the discussion in its vaguely worded account of the conversation. Europe has committed to even more aid.

 

Nor did the White House describe any discussions over what territory Russia might retain after its seizure of about 20 percent of Ukraine’s land, beginning with the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.

 

The result of the call seemed to fall well short of what Mr. Trump had been hoping for in his outreach to Moscow, after several days of optimistic-sounding pronouncements from the White House that peace was within reach. Despite Mr. Trump’s public optimism, which included an exclamation-mark-filled social media post, there was no date set for a meeting between the two presidents. There was no statement of common principles to end the war.

 

But there were gestures of good will. Mr. Putin said Russia would release 23 seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers and would carry out a prisoner exchange with Ukraine later this month, consisting of 175 prisoners from each side, the Kremlin said.

 

The negotiations came after a remarkable public breach between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky that played directly into Mr. Putin’s hands. The Trump administration temporarily suspended military and intelligence aid to Ukraine earlier this month after an explosive confrontation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky in the Oval Office. Washington restored the flow of aid after U.S. and Ukrainian officials met in Saudi Arabia and agreed to a comprehensive 30-day cease-fire proposal. The Trump administration then brought the proposal to Moscow.

 

Mr. Putin, keen to avoid upsetting the Kremlin’s rapid rapprochement with the White House, said that the idea was “correct” and that Russia supported it in principle. But he proceeded to lay out conditions known to be unacceptable to Kyiv.

 

According to the Kremlin, the Russian leader reiterated those concerns during the call on Tuesday. Mr. Putin raised the issue of “ensuring effective control” to implement the cease-fire across a lengthy front, the Kremlin said. The Russian leader also said Ukraine would need to pause personnel mobilization and rearmament, a condition Ukraine has said it will not accept.

 

On Sunday night, Mr. Trump told reporters he expected much of the discussion would focus on territory that would be ceded to Russia, and on control of nuclear power plants. That seemed to suggest he wanted to discuss the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, which is now occupied by Russian forces.

 

But neither the Kremlin nor the White House mentioned any discussions about the power plant or the territory Russia might retain.

 

While Washington and Moscow committed last month to normalizing their diplomatic missions, after years of tit-for-tat expulsions and closures, and midlevel U.S. and Russian officials held talks on the issue in late February. The White House and the Kremlin did not mention the matter, however, in their summaries of the call.

 

In a White House statement and a separate post by Mr. Trump on Truth Social, Washington said Mr. Putin had agreed to cease strikes on “energy and infrastructure.” But the Kremlin, in its statement, said “energy infrastructure.” It was not clear how the moratorium on energy strikes, if it goes into effect, would be enforced.

 

The Kremlin said the two leaders also expressed support for a broader normalization in relations between the United States and Russia, and discussed possible future economic cooperation, including in the energy sector. Mr. Trump agreed to Mr. Putin’s idea to hold hockey tournaments in their respective countries, in which American and Russian professional players would compete, the Kremlin added.

 

The Trump administration’s avoidance of discussing the details, including any discussion the two men may have had on land concessions they would press Mr. Zelensky to make in the name of ending the fighting, may be designed to keep the maximum flexibility in the negotiating room. But it may also reflect a desire to avoid another open confrontation with Mr. Zelensky.

 

In recent days senior Ukrainian officials have described three red lines going into negotiations: Kyiv will never formally accept Russian sovereignty over occupied Ukrainian territory, agree to neutral status or agree to reduce the size of its armed forces. Officials have also said they must obtain security guarantees as part of any settlement. France and Britain, among others, have offered to send troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping or “trip wire” force, but the Kremlin has rejected the idea. And military officials question whether such a force is feasible if the United States does not agree to back up the European effort in a crisis.

 

Speaking to journalists on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine would not recognize occupied territory as Russian “under any circumstances,” adding that he understood “that this is precisely what the Russians need, and it will insist on terms it knows Ukraine cannot accept.” Last November, Mr. Zelensky conceded not all territory could be won back by force, and may have to remain under de facto Russian control after a settlement.

 

In its statement, the White House focused on issues beyond Ukraine, saying that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin “spoke broadly about the Middle East as a region of potential cooperation” and “the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons.” The sole remaining nuclear arms limitation treaty between the United States and Russia expires next February, and negotiations on a replacement have not begun. In his first term, Mr. Trump said he would not enter a new arms control treaty without China also signing on to limits, though Beijing has expressed no interest as it expands its arsenal.

 

For Mr. Trump, a Ukraine cease-fire is a first step to a much broader normalization of relations with Russia, which he is pursuing even while most of his NATO allies follow the strategy of the past three years: sanctions and containment of Russia, and continued aid for Ukraine.

 

Ukrainian officials have accused Mr. Putin of playing for time in order to maintain leverage in negotiations, and allow Russia time to continue bombarding Ukrainian cities and towns.

 

In its statement, the White House said that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin had agreed to begin “technical negotiations” over a broader maritime cease-fire in the Black Sea, where Russian ships can barely operate now, and a “full cease-fire and permanent peace.” It said those talks would “begin immediately in the Middle East.”

 

Marc Santora and Constant Méheut contributed reporting from Kyiv.

 

David E. Sanger covers the Trump administration and a range of national security issues. He has been a Times journalist for more than four decades and has written four books on foreign policy and national security challenges. More about David E. Sanger

 

Paul Sonne is an international correspondent, focusing on Russia and the varied impacts of President Vladimir V. Putin’s domestic and foreign policies, with a focus on the war against Ukraine. More about Paul Sonne