Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed for the very first time on Tuesday to a limited ceasefire that would stop the strikes on energy infrastructure in Ukraine in a 2 and a half hour phone call that he had with US president Donald Trump the Russian leader though declined at least not for now to a broader 30-day halt in the fighting which both the American and Ukrainian officials had proposed the attacks on Ukrainian civilians its cities and its ports will continue as both sides are competing now for territory and also for an upper hand in the negotiations Putin
knows that he's within days of completely regaining control of K the Russian region which is the only bargaining chip which Ukraine has if when it comes down to negotiations but if the strikes on energy infrastructure by both sides indeed do stop as Putin has now agreed and the Americans have agreed as well this would Mark the first mutually agreed suspension of attacks in the 3 years of this war the White House has characterized this as a first step towards a broader peace we are on the 10th yard line of peace and we've never been closer
to a peace deal than we are in this moment and the president as you know um is determined to get one done privately though some Administration officials acknowledge that Mr Putin seems to be stalling he has conceded but only just enough to appear to be engaged in the peace talks while at the same time pressing his advantage on the battlefield a ceasefire for energy targets would benefit Ukraine no doubt about it it has struggled for years with Russia's repeated attacks on Ukraine's energy grid but it would also come as a big relief to the Kremlin
because Ukraine too has been conducting extensive strikes on Russian oil and gas fa fa ities many of them deep inside the Russian Heartland and that has jeopardized moscow's most crucial stream of State revenues President Vladimir zilinsky of Ukraine has said that he was still waiting for a phone call from Donald Trump to find out the details of Trump's discussion with Putin he said he was open to a ceasefire on strikes targeting energy infrastructure but he wanted more the American and Russian accounts of the call that lasted for well over two and a half hours displayed
the gulf that remains still between Moscow and Washington Putin insists that a long-lasting peace depends entirely on a complete cessation a complete halt of all foreign military and intelligence Aid to K that is something that the Trump White House is unwilling to commit to at least not just yet and that is a total no-o area for both the ukrainians and the Europeans in a sense Putin is demanding an end to all the military support for Ukraine that the United States and Europe have provided for the last 3 years military assistance alone runs in excess of
$200 billion Trump and his vice president JD van have been very highly critical of the billions of dollars that America has spent on this war but the result of the 2 and a half hour phone call between and Trump seemed to fall well short of what Trump had been hoping for there were several days of optimistic sounding pronouncements from the White House that peace was very much Within Reach in fact he had famously said that he would end this war within 24 hours of becoming president it's now 2 months since he has become president and
we are not anywhere close to a full cessation of hostilities on the battlefield but none of that optimism was visible after the call there was no date set for the meeting between the two presidents there was there was no statement of common principles on how to come to an end to this war but there were gestures of Goodwill though Putin said that Russia would release 23 seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers they would also carry out a prisoner exchange with Ukraine later this month the first batch of prisoner exchange would contain uh consist of 175 prisoners from
either side the Trump administration had temporarily suspended military and intelligence Aid to Ukraine earlier this month this after that massive and explosive confrontation that happened between Trump and in the Oval Office on the 28th of February you're right now not in a very good position you've allowed yourself to be in a very bad position and he happens to be right about from the very beginning of the war you're not in a good position you don't have the cards right now with us you start having card right now you don't you're playing card you're playing you're
gambling with the lives of millions of people you're gambling with World War I Washington then subsequently restored the flow of military aid and intelligence ship in after us and Ukrainian officials met in Saudi Arabia last week they agreed to a comprehensive 30-day ceasefire proposal the Trump Administration then brought that proposal to Moscow but Putin did not bite and Trump clearly overplayed his hand Putin raised the issue of ensuring effective control to implement the ceasefire across a very lengthy Battlefront which is more than 700 M long the Russian leader has also said that Ukraine would need
to pause all military personnel mobilization and re rearmament that's a condition that Ukraine has said it will not accept in recent days senior Ukrainian officials have described that they've got three red lines going into the negotiations Kev will never formally accept Russian sovereignty over occupied Ukrainian territory they will never agree to a neutral status for Ukraine or agree to reduce the size of its armed forces the ukrainians were also insistent that they must obtain security guarantees as part of any settlement none of this seems to have been agreed to in the 2 and a half
hour long conversation between Trump and Putin peace in Ukraine remains just as elusive as ever
