President Donald Trump held a high-stakes call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday as the U.S. pushes for a ceasefire with Ukraine.
A White House readout of the call said Putin supports Trump’s idea for a mutual pause on energy infrastructure attacks, but did not include any commitment to the 30-day truce accepted by Ukraine last week.
“Both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace,” the White House said. “They also stressed the need for improved bilateral relations between the United States and Russia. The blood and treasure that both Ukraine and Russia have been spending in this war would be better spent on the needs of their people.”
“This conflict should never have started and should have been ended long ago with sincere and good faith peace efforts,” the White House added. “The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace. These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.”
Trump and Putin also spoke about the Middle East more broadly, including Iran.
“The two leaders agreed that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside,” the readout stated. “This includes enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved.”
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Mar. 13, 2025 and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Mar. 13, 2025.
AFP via Getty Images
The conversation lasted 2 1/2 hours, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Tass, a Russian state media outlet.
According to Russian state media, the Kremlin said Putin “supported” Trump’s idea of a 30-day halt on attacking energy infrastructure in Russia and Ukraine.
But in terms of Trump’s proposal for a broader monthlong truce, the Kremlin readout said “the Russian side has identified a number of significant issues related to ensuring effective control over a possible ceasefire along the entire line of contact, the need to stop forced mobilization in Ukraine and the rearmament of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
The Kremlin also said Putin believed a condition for ending the war should “be the complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kiev.”
The Trump administration took drastic steps in stopping military aid and pausing some intelligence sharing with Ukraine after the Oval Office clash between Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Those two tools resumed after Ukraine agreed to the ceasefire last Tuesday.
Ukraine has said it would need to approve any agreement.
A Ukrainian official told ABC News ahead of Tuesday’s call that Zelenskyy would be monitoring the conversation between Trump and Putin with caution and great interest.
“We agreed to the U.S. ceasefire proposal with zero conditions, and if Putin is gonna start playing with Trump setting demands — it will not work,” the source added.
ABC News’ Tanya Stuaklova, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
