During a call with President Trump, President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that he would accept a halt to strikes on energy infrastructure in Russia’s war with Ukraine, as long as both sides honored it, according to the Kremlin. But the Russian leader did not agree to a broader, 30-day cease-fire proposed by the U.S. and Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said he was open to suspending attacks on energy targets, but he, too, insisted that the deal not be one-sided. “It cannot be the case that Russia attacks our energy sector, and we remain silent,” he said. “We will respond.”
Putin has told Trump “that the ‘key condition’ to resolving the conflict was an end to military and intelligence aid to Ukraine by the West,” said my colleague Paul Sonne, who covers Russia. That path, he added, “would essentially make Ukraine perpetually vulnerable to Russia.”
The White House said a pause on energy strikes would be a first step toward peace, but the outcome of the call with Putin seemed to fall well short of what Trump had suggested was possible.
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