President Donald Trump spoke on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy while conversations continue to try to end the Russian-Ukraine war.
His conversation occurred one day after Trump could not persuade Russian president Vladimir Putin to accept a high total fire proposed by the United States and backed by Ukraine, although Putin agrees to stop attacks against energy infrastructure.
Trump, in a publication on social networks, said that the call with Zelenskyy lasted an hour and was “very good.”
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, listens while the Finnish president addresses his joint press conference at the presidential palace in Helsinki, on March 19, 2025.
Heikki Saukkomaa/Magazine/AFP through Getty Images
“Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin to align Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs,” Trump wrote. “We are very on the way, and I will ask the Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the national security advisor Michael Waltz, to give a precise description of the points discussed. That statement will be published shortly.”
Zelenskyy also found the “good” and “very productive” conversation, according to a source at the Ukrainian president’s office.
The Ukrainian president also agreed to establish a new meeting for Ukrainian and American delegations as soon as possible. Both parties will start working on this now, the source told ABC News.
At a press conference with Finnish president Alexander Stubb on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said that Putin’s “words” are not enough to ensure an agreement that both Ukraine and Russia will stop hitting the energy infrastructure.
Zelenskyy said he is preparing a list that Ukraine will share “our partners” on which facilities and objectives will be outside the limits to attack in a possible agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
“If the Russians do not attack our facilities, we will certainly not hit their own,” Zelenskyy said.
“Only guarantees and only Putin’s words that orders not to attack energy facilities, that is not enough. Why? Because, unfortunately, this war has made us very practical people,” Zelenskyy said.
“If we reach this agreement, there will be a list of sites. We already have a list: a list of civil, energy and infrastructure facilities. We will definitely prepare this list and provide it with our partners. If the Russians do not attack our facilities, we will certainly not hit their own,” Zelenskyy added.
Zelenskyy previously told the international head correspondent of ABC News, James Longman, who was counting to talk with Trump about the “details” of a high partial energy fire.
“We have always supported the high fire position and not to use weapons against energy infrastructure, and we have also supported the position of not attacking naval corridors,” said Zelenskyy on Tuesday.
But Russia and Ukraine continued exchanging strikes during the night after the so-called Trump-Poutin. The Ukrainian authorities reported an attack with unmanned planes in a hospital, while Moscow said Ukraine hit an oil deposit center.
The actions led Zelenskyy to say: “Only a true cessation of Russia of attacks against civil infrastructure as evidence of a desire to end this war can bring peace closer.”
Wednesday’s call was the first between Trump and Zelenskyy since his Oval office clash last month, in which Trump accused the Ukrainian leader of not being ready for peace and not having any cards in negotiations.
President Donald Trump and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meet at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on February 28, 2025.
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Images
After tense weather, the Trump administration cut military assistance and the exchange of intelligence to Kyiv. However, these tools were reinstated after Ukraine agreed a 30 -day truce during conversations with senior US officials in Saudi Arabia last week.
Trump had expressed his optimism before his call with Putin that there would be a good possibility of success in ensuring the high fire of one month. But then, in an interview with Fox News presenter, Laura Ingraham, Tuesday night, Trump admitted it that “it would have been difficult.”
The Kremlin said after Tuesday’s call that in terms of the high the fire of one month, Russia “identified a series of important problems related to guaranteeing effective control over a possible fire throughout the entire contact line.”
In addition, he said that a key condition to end the war would be the total “cessation” of military assistance and intelligence for kyiv.
“Today, Putin effectively rejected the proposal of a complete fire.
“Sanctions against Russia. Assistance to Ukraine. Strengthening allies in the free world and working towards security guarantees. And only a real cessation of strikes on civil infrastructure by Russia, as proof of their will to put an end to this war, can close peace.”
Ivan Pereira of ABC News contributed to this report.
