Trump tells Zelenskyy US should own a safe factory for Ukrainian energy plants – Country
U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday they had a constructive call to move towards a ceasefire between Kiev and Moscow, with the White House hinting that the U.S. controls U.S. power plants to ensure their safety.
Trump told Zelenskyy that a White House statement from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said the U.S. could be “very helpful in running these plants with electricity and utility expertise,” which described it as “awesome.”
“U.S. ownership of these plants is probably the best protection for this infrastructure,” Trump added.
The appeal between Trump and Zelenskyy comes the day after the U.S. leader held similar talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Trump's phone call with Zelenskyy was about half the call on Tuesday, during which time Putin agreed not to target Ukraine's energy infrastructure but refused to support a full 30-day ceasefire.
The White House suggested Trump disagree with Putin's request in Tuesday's call that the United States terminated all military aid and intelligence sharing shared with Ukraine, as part of any deal to end the war.
“In terms of Ukraine's defense, intelligence will continue to be shared,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Trump said in a social media post that his appeal with Zelenskyy was “aligned with both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their demands and needs” as he tried to stop the fight.
“We have enough pace,” Trump added.
Zelenskyy said before a conference call with Trump that Putin's limited ceasefire commitment “contradicts reality” after a drone strike across the country.
“Even after Putin had a conversation with Trump… Trump, he was giving orders to stop the strike on Ukrainian energy, which included overnight, including energy facilities,” Zelenskyy said in a press conference with Finnish President Alexander.
“This kind of attack is exactly why President Trump is committed to peace,” State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce told reporters.
“It's time to stop death and destruction and end this endless war,” she said.
The White House added that Zelenskyy asked Trump to provide more air defense systems, including the Patriot missile system, and Trump said he would work with him to “find something available, especially in Europe.”
Kremlin says Kyiv has not insisted on the end of bargaining
Russia responded that it had stopped targeting Ukrainian energy facilities and accused Kief of attacking equipment near one of the pipelines.
“Unfortunately, we see that the Kiev regime has no reciprocity yet,” said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin.
The White House described the call between Trump and Putin as the first step in a “peace movement” where Washington hopes to put a ceasefire at sea in the Black Sea and ultimately be full of lasting battles.
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But there is no indication that Putin withdraws from the conditions of a quasi-peace agreement, which Kiev strongly opposes.
Russia will ceasefire proposal “hostage”
The War Institute of Washington-based think tank said Putin’s request in the phone call with Trump would constitute “Ukrainian surrender.”
“Putin is trying to hold hostages for the temporary ceasefire proposal to extract preemptive concessions before formal negotiations end the war,” ISW said in an analysis of the readings on the phone.
Stubb said the discussion between Putin and Trump was taking a step in the right direction, but the Finnish president said Russia needs to end its aggression.
“There are only two ways to respond to the proposal from the US president: Yes, or no-no, no, no, no, no, no,” Stubb said. “Ukraine accepted the ceasefire without any form of conditions. If Russia refuses to agree, we need to step up efforts to strengthen Ukraine and increase pressure on Russia to convince them to come to the negotiation table.”
Walz said on social media that he and his Russian counterpart Yuri Ushakov agreed on Wednesday that their team will soon meet in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to “focus on implementing and expanding a local ceasefire President Trump, thus gaining support from Russia.”
It is unclear who will be part of the delegation or Ukrainian officials are also invited to talks in Saudi Arabia.
Ukraine and Russia trade charges
Shortly after a long call between Trump and Putin on Tuesday, air strikes sirens in Kiev were heard, then exploded while residents were hiding.
Zelenskyy said despite efforts to repel the attack, several strikes attacked civilian infrastructure, including two hospitals, a railway and more than 20 houses. Russian drones are reportedly in the areas of Kief, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk and Cherkasy.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its military had launched seven drones on power facilities related to the military industrial complex in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine, but it knocked it down after receiving orders from Putin not to penetrate the energy infrastructure.
Moscow accused Ukraine of targeting its energy facilities in the Krasnodar region bordering the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014 hours after Putin and Trump talks. The ministry said the three drones were targeting its oil transfer equipment, which was for it to feed the Caspian pipeline consortium, causing fires and causing a tank to lose pressure.
“It's clear that we are talking about another provocation deliberately concocted by the Kiev regime, aiming to derail the U.S. President's peace initiative,” the ministry said.
Russia said its air defense intercepted 57 Ukrainian drones in the Azov Sea and several Russian regions – the border provinces of Kursk and Bryansk and nearby Oriel and Tula areas.
Zelenskyy said the “cease-fire” was not enough.
“If Russians don't plan on our facilities, we will never hit their facilities,” Zelenskyy said.
Meanwhile, two combatants said Wednesday that they exchanged 175 prisoners in one of the war's largest exchanges.
Zelenskyy rejected Putin's key condition that Western allies stopped providing military aid and intelligence to Ukraine. He said that doing so would be life-threatening if citizens turned a blind eye to incoming air strikes and led to the continuation of the war.
“I don't think anyone should make any concessions in helping Ukraine, but should increase aid to Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “This will show that Ukraine is ready to bring any surprises to the Russians.”
Nigel Gould-Davies, senior Russian and Eurasian researcher at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, said Putin rejected the ceasefire, adding that it was “totally unsurprising”, adding that “tell him directly to President Trump that it was Trump because Trump has already put the war to an extremely high priority.”
“In fact, what we have now is a competition or competition between Kiev and Moscow to convince Trump that it is the other party responsible for preventing Trump from achieving his goal of ending the war,” Gould-Davies said.
Zelenskyy said one of the most difficult issues in future negotiations is the issue of territorial concessions.
“For us, the red line is recognition of Ukraine's temporary occupation of territory,” he said. “We won't do it.”
Yehor Konovalov of Kiev, Dasha Litvinova of Tallinn, Dasha Litvinova of Estonia, Geir Moulson of Berlin, Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller of Washington, and Brian Melley of London contributed to the report.
