President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are speaking by phone as Kyiv continues to weather attacks on energy infrastructure despite Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s claim to have ordered a halt to such attacks following a phone call with Trump one day earlier.
The White House said the call would take place Wednesday morning, and White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that the two leaders had been connected and were speaking as of 10:38 am ET.
The call was arranged after Zelensky indicated a desire to speak with Trump in the wake of the American president’s 90-minute conversation with Putin, after which the White House said the two leaders had agreed on an “energy and infrastructure ceasefire,” with talks to begin “immediately in the Middle East” about a full ceasefire.
Separately, the Kremlin said Putin had agreed to stop strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for the next month, and a separate readout issued from Moscow said the two leaders had a “detailed and frank exchange of views” on Ukraine, with Putin stressing that any resolution to the conflict must be “comprehensive, sustainable and long-term” and take into account Russia’s own security interests.
“It was emphasized that the key condition for preventing the escalation of the conflict and working towards its resolution by political and diplomatic means should be a complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv,” the Kremlin added.
But despite Putin’s promise to Trump to halt attacking Kyiv’s energy grid, Russian forces continued to pound Ukrainian infrastructure overnight and continuing into Wednesday, with Ukrainian military officials blaming an overnight Russian missile attack for leaving part of Slovyansk city without electricity.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities said Ukraine attacked an oil depot near the village of Kavkazskaya.
The call between Trump and Zelensky is the first direct contact between the two leaders since Trump administration officials threw Zelensky out of the White House after what was supposed to be a triumphant visit by the Ukrainian leader to mark the signing of a mineral rights dealdevolved into an Oval Office shouting match that ended with a vulgar, grievance-filled rant from President Donald Trump and taunts about Zelensky’s supposed lack of gratitude from Vice President JD Vance.
Zelensky left the White House roughly an hour after the emotional eruption, cutting short talks that were supposed to cement an economic relationship between Washington and Kyiv and create a mechanism to repay the billions in American military aid that has been sent to Ukraine since 2022.
This is a developing story and will be updated…