Brussels – Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have spoken on the phone and have struck a deal for apartial ceasefire in Ukraine. The outcome of the call is a verbal agreement on a 30-day suspension of shelling against the energy and civilian infrastructure of the belligerent countries, coupled with a commitment to start negotiations on next steps “immediately” and to restore diplomatic and economic relations between Washington and Moscow. But now it needs the okay from Kiev as well.
The hoped-for telephone conversation that took place today (March 18) between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to unblock the delicate game over the treaty in the Ukraine war lasted a couple of hours. According to the comunicato ufficiale released by the U.S. Embassy in Russia, “both leaders agreed on the need to end this conflict with a lasting peace” and that “the movement toward peace will begin with a cessive fire for energy and infrastructure as well as technical negotiations on the implementation of a cessive maritime fire in the Black Sea, a comprehensive ceasefire and a permanent peace.”
The Kremlin also let it be known that a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine will take place tomorrow, which is expected to involve 175 detainees from each side. In addition to this, as a “sign of goodwill,” the Russians will also hand over 23 seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers currently being treated in Federation clinics.
The negotiations “will begin immediately in the Middle East”, reads the memo (attributed to White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt), where it is emphasized that other issues to be explored are “the need to stop the proliferation of strategic weapons” and the need for “Iran to never be able to destroy Israel.”
The choice of the Middle Eastern setting as a venue for negotiations is therefore anything but accidental, as made evident by the several rounds of negotiations held in Saudi Arabia. After all, the same Steve Witkoff – on whom the New York-based tycoon seems to be banking as a kind of super-negotiator, and who prepared the ground for today’s call by meeting in person with the Kremlin chief last week – is officially the White House’s special envoy for the Middle East.
Trump and Putin also “stressed the need to improve bilateral relations between the U.S. and Russia,” agreeing about the “enormous benefits” this will bring to both countries (including, the statement concluded, “enormous economic arrangements and geopolitical stability once peace is achieved” in the former Soviet republic).
However, as noted by Ursula von der Leyen during a visit to Copenhagen, it does indeed appear that the terms on which the U.S. administration agreed (separately) with the Ukrainian and Russian counterparts are not the same. In Jeddah last week, Kiev’s negotiating team had given the green disk to a proposal for a 30-day ceasefire that was supposed to cover also land and sea fighting in addition to aerial bombardments (moreover, all bombardments, not just those on critical infrastructure).
So it remains to be seen how Volodymyr Zelensky will decide to move in the face of Moscow’s counterproposal, which substantially waters down the one he agreed to with U.S. partners. It is understood that it was Putin himself, no later than last Thursday, to set a number of onerous conditions for accepting a truce agreement, arguing that the one proposed by the United States was too favorable to Ukraine.
From Berlin, meanwhile, came reactions from Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron, who commented on the latest developments during a joint press conference. The understanding between Trump and Putin is “a good start” according to the outgoing German chancellor, for whom “the next step must be a comprehensive ceasefire as soon as possible.” The French president stressed that peace “cannot be achieved without Ukraine taking part in negotiations.”
Today’s was the second phone call between the two presidents, following the one last Feb. 12 that had taken diplomacies halfway around the world and especially those of Washington’s Western allies by surprise, including Ukraine itself, which had seen itself bypassed by the two superpowers and feared being cut off from the negotiating table.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
