WASHINGTON — President Trump held an hourlong call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Wednesday — one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected an unconditional 30-day cease-fire that Washington and Kyiv agreed to last week.
“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 Truth Social after what he described as a “very good” call wrapped.
“We are very much on track,” the president added, “and I will ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, to give an accurate description of the points discussed. That Statement will be put out shortly.”
Ahead of the exchange, Zelensky said the two planned to “discuss the details of the next steps” to bring about a full cease-fire and ultimate end to the war.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Helsinki on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president pointed out that Russia had already broken the one cease-fire element that Putin promised to uphold: an immediate pause on attacking “energy infrastructure.”
While the Kremlin’s readout of the Tuesday call with Trump claimed Putin “immediately” ordered his military to adhere to the limited cease-fire, Zelensky said the claim was “very much at odds with reality” following a series of drone attacks across Ukraine.
Ahead of Trump’s call with Zelensky, Waltz told reporters at the White House Wednesday morning that he had spoken to his Russian counterpart, and had another scheduled with unspecified Ukrainian officials.
While Kyiv wants to participate in discussions alongside the US and Russia, Putin has demanded only one-on-one calls with Washington, forcing the Trump administration to act as the go-between.
“Shuttle diplomacy is difficult, it’s tough, but we are going back and forth at every level driving both sides toward a cease-fire and driving both sides toward the end of this war,” said Waltz, who joined Trump in denying Russia’s claims that Putin had demanded the White House cut off military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
“It was emphasized that the key condition for preventing the escalation of the conflict and working towards its resolution through political and diplomatic means should be the complete cessation of foreign military aid and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv,” the Kremlin said in its Tuesday readout.”
Waltz did not respond when asked if Russian officials were lying about that portion of the call.
The White House also had no immediate response to Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector following Putin’s promise to Trump. It took under an hour from the Trump-Putin phone call for Russia to launch an attack affecting the energy grid in Sloviansk, located in the contested Donetsk region.
“Putin backed Trump’s 30-day pause on energy strikes—then broke his word in less than an hour. Russia hit Sloviansk’s energy infrastructure, leaving half the city without power,” Ukrainian Member of Parliament Inna Sovsun posted to X. “Shocking? Absolutely not.”
Moscow sought the “energy infrastructure” cease-fire after Ukraine targeted multiple Russian oil facilities in recent weeks.
On March 11, Kyiv launched a drone attack on Moscow Oil Refinery, which provides the Russian capital with about half of its diesel and gasoline needs.