Very Good and Productive’
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18.Maxim Shemetov/AFP via Getty Images
Foreign Policy, March 18, 2025
A high-stakes phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday produced modest progress toward reducing the fighting between Russia and Ukraine but failed to secure the full cease-fire that Trump had been seeking.
According to a Kremlin readout of the call, Putin agreed to pause strikes on Ukraine’s “energy and infrastructure” for 30 days and “immediately gave the Russian military the corresponding order.” Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly accused Moscow of “weaponizing winter” by targeting critical energy facilities in large-scale missile and drone attacks, and even after the call, the Ukrainian Air Force reported several Russian drones, ballistic missiles, and guided bombs in the air.
Washington and Moscow also agreed to immediately begin “technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace,” according to the U.S. readout. The Kremlin’s readout added that the two parties agreed to organize hockey matches between Russian and U.S. players.
On Truth Social, Trump described the call, which lasted at least 90 minutes, as a “very good and productive one.” Yet he did not mention that Putin had rejected the full cease-fire that the United States was pushing for.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a limited air and sea truce, but the White House convincedKyiv to support a U.S.-proposed full cease-fire instead. That was what Trump was aiming to secure on Tuesday, only for Putin to ultimately agree to something closer to where Zelensky originally stood.
Even more concerning for the prospects for longer-term peace, the Kremlin laid out several terms for resolving the conflict that Ukraine and its European allies are likely to reject, including the “complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv.” Putin has previously argued that Ukraine cannot be allowed to rearm its military during any future cease-fire. But many of Ukraine’s European partners believe that protecting Kyiv militarily is vital not just for the country’s future but for the continent’s safety.
“European security starts in Ukraine,” British Defense Secretary John Healey said on Monday, ahead of talks with military chiefs in London later this week. More than 30 countries have already pledged to join a “coalition of the willing” that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have spearheaded to enforce a peace deal in Ukraine, a spokesperson for Downing Street confirmed on Monday. This would include a “significant number” of countries that would provide troops on the ground alongside other logistics and background support. Russia has rejected such a proposal.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials outlined Kyiv’s own red lines on Tuesday, prior to the Trump-Putin phone call. “Ukraine will not discuss neutral status or a reduction in numbers of our armed forces,” Andriy Yermak, one of Zelensky’s advisors, wrote on Telegram. “We will never recognize any temporarily occupied territory as Russian.”
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