Trump and Putin speak for more than an hour as US seeks Ukraine ceasefire
President Donald Trump, (right) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Picture: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko
US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin discussed the Ukraine war on Tuesday in a phone call which Washington hoped would convince Moscow to accept a 30-day ceasefire and move towards a permanent peace deal.
Both sides said the talks, which began at 10am ET (2pm Irish time), had later concluded.
White House chief of staff Dan Scavino had said earlier that the call had been "going well".
Kirill Dmitriev, a Putin envoy, said that under the leadership of Trump and Putin the world had become a much safer place.
Ukraine has already agreed to the US-proposed ceasefire in Europe's biggest conflict since World War Two, in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or wounded, millions have been displaced and towns have been reduced to rubble.
Mr Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, said last week he supported in principle Washington's proposal for a truce but that his forces would fight on until several crucial conditions were worked out.
Mr Trump hopes also to secure progress towards a longer-term peace plan, which he has hinted could include territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said before the call that Trump and Putin would discuss settling the conflict in Ukraine and normalising relations between Russia and the United States, and that they would speak "for as long as they deem necessary."
Mr Peskov said there was already a "certain understanding" between the two leaders, based on a phone call they held on February 12 and on subsequent high-level contacts between the two countries.
Mr Trump's shifts in US policy and his overtures to Mr Putin since returning to the White House in January have left traditional US allies wary.
Tuesday’s call comes after Ukrainian officials last week agreed to the American proposal during talks in Saudi Arabia led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Ukraine and its Western allies have long described Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an imperialist land grab and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Putin of deliberately prolonging the war.
Tomorrow marks one week since the U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in the sky, at sea, and on the front lines has been on the table. The implementation of this proposal could have begun long ago. Every day in wartime is a matter of human lives.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 17, 2025
Now, almost a week later, it’s clear… pic.twitter.com/bqRbA8hf7K
Mr Zelenskyy, who arrived in Finland on Tuesday to discuss the NATO state's support for Ukraine, says Ukraine's sovereignty is not negotiable and Russia must surrender the territory it has seized. He says Moscow's ambitions will not stop at Ukraine if it is allowed to keep the territory it has seized.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned on Tuesday that Russia had massively expanded its military-industrial production capacity in preparation for "future confrontation with European democracies."
Speaking to Mr Trump late on Monday, British prime minister Kier Starmer "reiterated that all must work together to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position to secure a just and lasting peace," the British leader's spokesperson said.
Russia seized the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and controls most of four eastern Ukrainian regions following its invasion in February 2022. It controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
Mr Putin said he sent troops into Ukraine because NATO's creeping expansion threatened Russia's security. He has demanded Ukraine drop its ambition of joining the Western military alliance.
Mr Putin has also said Russia must keep control of Ukrainian territory it has seized, that Western sanctions should be eased and Kyiv must stage a presidential election. Zelenskiy, elected in 2019, rules under martial law he imposed because of the war.
The engagement is just the latest turn in dramatically shifting US-Russia relations, as Mr Trump made quickly ending the conflict a top priority, even at the expense of straining ties with longtime American allies who want Mr Putin to pay a price for the invasion.
“It’s a bad situation in Russia, and it’s a bad situation in Ukraine,” Mr Trump told reporters on Monday.
“What’s happening in Ukraine is not good, but we’re going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace. And I think we’ll be able to do it.”
In preparation for the Trump-Putin call, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff last week met Mr Putin in Moscow to discuss the proposal.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio had persuaded senior Ukrainian officials during talks in Saudi Arabia to agree to the ceasefire framework.
The US president said Washington and Moscow have already begun discussing “dividing up certain assets” between Ukraine and Russia as part of a deal to end the conflict.
Mr Trump, who during his campaign pledged to quickly end the war, has at moments boasted of his relationship with Mr Putin and blamed Ukraine for Russia’s unprovoked invasion, all while accusing Mr Zelenskyy of unnecessarily prolonging the biggest land war in Europe since the Second World War.
Mr Witkoff and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that US and Russian officials have discussed the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, in southern Ukraine.
The plant has been caught in the crossfire since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in 2022 and seized the facility shortly after.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly expressed alarm about it, fuelling fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe.
The plant is a significant asset, producing nearly a quarter of Ukraine’s electricity in the year before the war.
“I can say we are on the 10th yard line of peace,” Ms Leavitt said. “And we’ve never been closer to a peace deal than we are in this moment. And the president, as you know, is determined to get one done.”
But Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Centre on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, questioned whether Mr Putin is ready to end the war or will hold out for potential further concessions as Mr Trump grows impatient.
After a disastrous February 28 White House meeting with Mr Zelenskyy, Mr Trump temporarily cut off some military intelligence-sharing and aid to Ukraine.
It was restored after the Ukrainians last week signed off on the Trump administration’s 30-day ceasefire proposal.
“The US has been consistently offering in some form pre-emptive concessions that have been weakening the American and Ukrainian negotiating position,” Mr Bowman said.
“I think there’s a real danger here that the administration’s approach is boiling down to sticks for Ukraine and carrots for Putin.”
Mr Zelenskyy in his nightly video address on Monday made clear he remains doubtful that Mr Putin is ready for peace.
“Now, almost a week later, it’s clear to everyone in the world, even to those who refused to acknowledge the truth for the past three years, that it is Mr Putin who continues to drag out this war,” Mr Zelensky said.
In his dealings with Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin, Mr Trump has frequently focused on who has the leverage. Mr Putin has “the cards” and Mr Zelensky does not, Mr Trump has said repeatedly.
Mr Trump, who has long shown admiration for Mr Putin, has also made clear he would like to see the US-Russia relationship return to a more normal footing.
The president, during his recent contentious meeting with Mr Zelensky, grumbled that “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me”, a reference to the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in which he beat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Mr Trump on Monday again underscored his view that Ukraine is not in a strong negotiating position.
He said Russian forces have “surrounded” Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region, amplifying an assertion made by Russian officials that has been disputed by Mr Zelensky.
Ukraine’s army stunned Russia in August last year by attacking across the border and taking control of an estimated 500 square miles of land.
But Ukraine’s forces are now in retreat and it has all but lost a valuable bargaining chip, as momentum builds for a ceasefire with Russia.
Mr Zelensky has acknowledged that the Ukrainians are on the back foot while disputing Russian claims that his troops are encircled in Kursk.
Mr Trump suggested that he has taken unspecified action that has kept Russia from slaughtering Ukrainian troops in Kursk.
“They’re surrounded by Russian soldiers, and I believe if it wasn’t for me they wouldn’t be here any longer,” Mr Trump said.
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