In a call with President Trump, President Vladimir V. Putin agreed to pause strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for 30 days if Ukraine does the same. That falls short of the unconditional cease-fire Ukraine had already agreed to.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia agreed for the first time on Tuesday to a limited cease-fire that would stop strikes on energy infrastructure, as long as Ukraine does the same, the Kremlin said in a statement. But the Russian leader declined for now to agree to a broader 30-day halt in fighting that U.S. and Ukrainian officials had proposed.
If strikes on energy infrastructure by both sides indeed stop, it would mark the first mutually agreed suspension of attacks in the three-year war, which the White House characterized as a first step toward a broader peace.
A partial cease-fire would not only benefit Ukraine, which has struggled for years with Russia’s repeated attacks on its energy grid. It would also come as a relief to the Kremlin: Ukraine has conducted extensive strikes on Russia’s oil and gas facilities deep into the Russian heartland, jeopardizing Moscow’s most crucial stream of state revenue.
However, in a two-and-a-half-hour phone conversation between Mr. Putin and President Trump, the Russian leader insisted that a long-lasting peace depended on a complete cessation of foreign military and intelligence assistance to Kyiv, the Kremlin said.
In essence, Mr. Putin was demanding an end to all of the military support for Ukraine that the United States and its allies have provided for three years. Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have been highly critical of the billions of dollars that the United States has spent on the war, but the White House made no reference to that part of the discussion in its vaguely worded account of the conversation.
Nor did the White House describe any discussions over what territory Russia might retain after its seizure of about 20 percent of Ukraine’s land, beginning with the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.