Trump holds call with Zelensky as Putin refuses to agree to ceasefire
Washington DC - President Donald Trump hailed a "very good" call with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky Wednesday, a day after Russia's Vladimir Putin agreed to temporarily halt attacks on Kyiv's power plants.
Trump said efforts to secure a full ceasefire in Russia's three-year-old invasion remained "on track" despite the fact that his call with Putin failed to produce any broader peace deal.
As Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of continuing attacks, Zelensky said after the "frank" call that Ukraine was ready to pause strikes on both Russian energy and civilian infrastructure.
Trump said he spoke for around an hour with his Ukrainian counterpart, their first conversation since they had a blazing televised row in the Oval Office just over two weeks ago.
"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," Trump said on his Truth Social network.
"We are very much on track."
The White House later said that during the call Trump had floated US "ownership" of Ukrainian power plants as it would be the "best protection" for them.
The billionaire former real estate mogul has already pushed Kyiv into a deal to give the US preferential access to its critical mineral resources.
Trump also pledged to help Ukraine get more air defense equipment from Europe, a statement from National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
Zelensky says Putin has "effectively rejected" proposed ceasefire
But while Ukraine has already agreed to a US plan for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire with Russia, Putin is still refusing.
The Kremlin leader insisted during his call with Trump that a full ceasefire was only possible if the West halted its billions of dollars in military aid to Kyiv – Moscow's long-standing demand.
Putin also demanded Ukraine must not be allowed to rearm, and that it must halt mandatory mobilization.
Despite both Ukraine and Russia saying they now backed a temporary truce on power plants, each accused the other of failing to adhere to the halt.
Ukraine's defense ministry said an overnight barrage of Russian missiles 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.
Russia's defense 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.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff says ceasefire could be reached "within a couple of weeks"
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" and 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 following Putin's demand for a Western aid halt.
Trump insisted on Monday night that he and Putin "didn't talk about aid at all." The US president has, however, talked about dividing up "assets," including Ukrainian land.
Cover photo: Collage: Brendan Smialowski / AFP & Markku Ulander / Lehtikuva / AFP