Trump and Putin discuss Ukraine war, White House says talks are going well

MOSCOW - US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed moves to end the Ukraine war on March 18, and the White House said in an early update that their phone call was going well.

Mr Trump hoped to convince Mr Putin to accept a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire and move towards a permanent end to the three-year-old conflict.

A White House official said the two leaders started the call at 1400 GMT (10pm, Singapore time).

“The call is going well, and still in progress,” Mr Dan Scavino, White House deputy chief of staff, wrote earlier in a post on social media platform X.

Ukraine has agreed to a ceasefire in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, 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 said last week he supported in principle Washington’s proposal for a 30-day truce but that his forces would fight on until several crucial conditions were worked out.

Mr Trump hoped to persuade Mr Putin to also accept the ceasefire and allow 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.

“Many elements of a final agreement have been agreed to, but much remains,” Mr Trump said in a social media post on March 17. “Each week brings 2,500 soldier deaths, from both sides, and it must end now.”

The Kremlin said before the call that the leaders would discuss settling the conflict in Ukraine and normalising relations between Russia and the US, and that they would speak “for as long as they deem necessary”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was already a “certain understanding” between the two leaders, based on a phone call they held on Feb 12 and on subsequent high-level contacts between the two countries.

“But there are also a large number of questions regarding the further normalisation of our bilateral relations, and a settlement on Ukraine. All of this will have to be discussed by the two presidents,” Mr Peskov told reporters.

Zelensky says sovereignty not negotiable

The Trump-Putin call has left traditional US allies wary.

Ukraine and its Western allies have long described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an imperialist land grab and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Mr Putin of deliberately prolonging the war.

Mr Zelensky has said the sovereignty of his country is not negotiable and that 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 March 18 that Russia had massively expanded its military industrial production capacity in preparation for “future confrontation with European democracies”.

Russia seized the Crimean 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.

He has also said Russia must keep control of Ukrainian territory it has seized, that Western sanctions should be eased and Kyiv must hold a presidential election.

Mr Zelensky, elected in 2019, rules under martial law he imposed because of the war.

Mr Trump has moved the US closer to Moscow since coming into office while alienating allies with tariffs and suggestions of annexing Canada and taking over Greenland.

He has expressed a kinship of sorts with Mr Putin, but his administration has shown recent signs of willingness to increase pressure on the Kremlin to stop the fighting. REUTERS