US president Donald Trump claimed his push to end the Russia-Ukraine war was “on track” ahead of fresh talks in Saudi Arabia, even as Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of immediately breaking a deal to halt attacks on energy facilities.
Mr Trump briefed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday about his call a day earlier with Vladimir Putin, during which the Russian leader refused to join Kyiv in accepting a US proposal for a full 30-day ceasefire but agreed to a mutual month-long pause in attacks on fuel and power plants.
Shortly after the deal was announced, however, Ukraine reported the start of an overnight Russian barrage of 145 attack drones and six missiles that damaged two hospitals, housing and power infrastructure.
“Putin’s words are very different from reality,” Mr Zelenskiy said. “That’s why we need defence support, support for our air defence, we need to exert pressure on Russia for the sake of security and saving lives.”
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Meanwhile, Moscow accused Kyiv’s forces of launching a drone strike on an oil pumping station in southern Russia. It also claimed to have halted attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure and even to have shot down seven of its own Ukraine-bound drones on orders from Mr Putin following his talk with Mr Trump.
“Unfortunately, we see no reciprocity so far from the Kyiv regime,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Mr Trump did not mention the alleged breaches of the partial truce, but said he spoke to Mr Zelenskiy “to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs. We are very much on track”.
It is thought to have been the first direct contact between the men since a meeting on February 28th ended with Mr Zelenskiy leaving the White House abruptly after a heated exchange in front of reporters with Mr Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance.
Mr Trump’s administration said that during a “fantastic phone conversation”, Mr Zelenskiy reiterated his support for a halt to strikes on energy sites and readiness for a full truce, and it was agreed that “technical teams will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss broadening the ceasefire to the Black Sea on the way to a full ceasefire”.
The leaders also discussed Ukraine’s nuclear and other power stations more broadly, the administration added, citing Mr Trump as saying that the US “could be very helpful in running those plants ... American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure.”
In a social media post after the two leaders spoke, Mr Zelenskiy said he had had a “positive, very substantive and frank” conversation with Mr Trump. “We believe that together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership, lasting peace can be achieved this year,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, US national security adviser Mike Waltz said he had spoken to senior Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov and agreed that “our technical teams would meet in Riyadh in the coming days to focus on implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire President Trump secured from Russia.”
Steve Witkoff, another US envoy involved in talks with Russia, said he expected those talks to start on Sunday and predicted that a full ceasefire could be agreed “in a couple of weeks”.
In another sign of the remarkable shift in official US attitudes to Mr Putin’s authoritarian regime under Mr Trump, Mr Witkoff also strongly defended the Kremlin from Kyiv’s allegation that Russia had attacked Ukraine’s power grid overnight.
“Putin issued an order within 10 minutes of his call with [Mr Trump] directing Russian forces not to be attacking any Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Any attacks that happened last night would have happened before that order was given,” he said.
“So I tend to believe that President Putin is operating in good faith … and I take him at his word.”
