US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky discussed how to continue ceasefire talks with Russia after Moscow carried out new air strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure just a day after President Vladimir Putin said he would halt such attacks.
"I just had a very good phone call with President Zelensky of Ukraine," Trump said in a social media post, noting that the call lasted about an hour.
"Most of the conversation was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their demands and needs. We are on the right track," he added.
Trump said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Walz would provide details of the talks later.
The call with Zelensky came a day after talks between Washington and Moscow appeared to have failed to achieve Trump's goal of reaching an agreement on a 30-day ceasefire.
Zelensky has not yet commented on the conversation with Trump, but earlier, at a press conference in Helsinki after a meeting with Finnish President Alexander Stubbs, he said that Putin's statement about an attack on Ukraine's energy and infrastructure network "does not correspond to reality at all," after Ukraine reported overnight attacks on two hospitals, energy infrastructure linked to the railway system, as well as other targets across the country.
The state-owned Ukrainian Railways said its facilities were attacked for the second time on Wednesday, injuring four people in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
"Even last night, after Putin's conversation with Trump, when Putin said he had allegedly given orders to stop attacks on Ukrainian energy, 150 drones were fired during the night, including attacks on energy facilities," Zelensky said.
The Kremlin said the scope of their agreement was limited to a pause in attacks on energy infrastructure, while the White House statement was somewhat different, mentioning a "ceasefire on energy infrastructure" along with an agreement to explore a ceasefire in the Black Sea as a step toward a broader peace agreement.
However, the situation on the ground does not appear to have changed much, as both sides continued to exchange airstrikes throughout the night.
"Putin's words need to be verified, and the United States could do that... We will compile a list of buildings and facilities that have been hit by Russian drones and missiles. If the Russians stop attacking our facilities, we will stop attacking Russian territory," he added, declining to elaborate on what he would tell Trump during the call later Wednesday.
"It is a long road to achieving a ceasefire and then long-term peace," Zelensky warned.
Russia has been destroying Ukraine's power infrastructure throughout this war in an attempt to demoralize the country's citizens by depriving them of electricity and heating in the middle of winter.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones struck an oil storage facility in Russia's Krasnodar region overnight, causing a fire and damaging a pipeline, Russian emergency officials confirmed, adding that there were no casualties.
The Kremlin interpreted that the Russian president, in his conversation with Trump, "responded positively" to the US president's initiative for a 30-day pause in attacks on such infrastructure, "and immediately issued a corresponding order to the Russian military."
While Trump described his conversation with Putin as "very good and productive," Zelensky expressed disappointment with the outcome in a social media post on Tuesday, saying it showed Putin was not interested in peace and was determined "to drag out the war."
Trump has been pushing for a quick end to the Russia-Ukraine war, but this month he admitted he was being "a little sarcastic" when he earlier promised to end the war within 24 hours.
US envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on Tuesday that new talks with Russia on the Ukraine war will take place on March 23 in Jeddah.
Bonus video:
