(AFP) – Vladimir Putin agreed Tuesday in a call with Donald Trump to halt attacks against Ukrainian energy targets but would not accept an immediate full ceasefire and insisted that the West halt all military aid for Kyiv. The US and Russian leaders spoke for more than an hour and a half and both expressed hopes for repairing relations wrecked by Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its pro-Western neighbor three years ago.
However, the highly anticipated call failed to produce the breakthrough Trump had hoped for, as there was no agreement from the Russian president for Washington’s proposed 30-day ceasefire, already agreed to by Ukraine. In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he backed the energy truce but believed Putin’s refusal of a wider peace showed he was not “ready” and still seeks to “weaken” Ukraine.
Trump insisted on his Truth Social network that they had “an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War.” The Kremlin, however, made it clear that any full truce was a way off and dependent on Russian demands that both Ukraine and its Western allies would find hard to accept. A Kremlin statement said Putin agreed to pause strikes against Ukraine energy targets for 30 days and that he had already given the order to his military. The White House said separately that the “leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire.”
Russia has launched a series of devastating attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure throughout the winter. Ukraine has used drones to bomb multiple Russian oil installations. Trump and Putin also agreed that broader truce talks would “begin immediately,” the White House said in its statement, citing a “huge upside” if Russia and the United States repair their relations.
But the Kremlin statement said the “key condition” for peace would be a “complete cessation” of Western military and intelligence support to Ukraine’s embattled military. Explosions rang out and air raid sirens wailed over the Ukrainian capital Kyiv a few hours after the call, AFP journalists reported, in a sign that Russia appeared determined to press on with its wider offensive.
Trump has been intent on delivering on an election pledge to end fighting in Ukraine, blaming his predecessor Joe Biden’s policy on Russia for fueling the war. He stunned the world in February when he announced a surprise call with Putin and the start of talks with Russia to end the conflict, sparking fears among allies that he was pivoting too far towards Moscow. As Trump upended years of US policy staunchly backing Ukraine, he then had a televised shouting match with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
But Western allies have been skeptical that Putin is ready for a ceasefire. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron vowed after the Kremlin statement that they would keep sending military aid to Ukraine. “Ukraine can count on us,” Scholz said.
The Europeans have also been wary that Trump will try to force through a deal that punishes Ukraine without demanding concessions from Russia. Trump said at the weekend that he was ready to discuss “dividing up certain assets” of Ukraine’s, including land and power plants. Under US pressure, Ukraine had already agreed to Washington’s proposal for a full 30-day ceasefire. It has also accepted a US plan to give it preferential access to Ukraine’s mineral resources.
But Putin has repeatedly said that there were further issues that needed discussion, mostly centering on its maximalist demands for the West to halt all support for Ukraine. Russia has pressed on with a grinding advance in recent months in southern and eastern Ukraine. Moscow has also seized back much of Russia’s Kursk region, parts of which Kyiv seized last year and was hoping to use as a bargaining chip. Russia said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces attempted a ground assault on the Belgorod region earlier but were pushed back, casting it as an attempt to undermine the Trump talks.
burs-dk/sms – Danny Kemp with Ola Cichowlas in Warsaw.
© 2024 AFP
