President Trump spoke to Russian president Vladimir Putin Tuesday but failed to win agreement for an immediate ceasefire with Ukraine that could lead to a peace deal.
The two leaders held a phone call that stretched on for more than two hours as Trump sought a breakthrough toward ending the conflict that started when Russia invaded its neighbor more than three years ago.
The White House said Trump and Putin agreed to an “infrastructure and energy ceasefire” and talks for a ceasefire in the Black Sea in Saudi Arabia.
But Putin apparently refused to accept an immediate 30-day ceasefire across the entire battlefield as Ukraine did last week.
“(Trump and Putin) spoke about the need for peace and a ceasefire in the Ukraine war,” the White House said in a statement.
A Kremlin statement repeated several Russian preconditions for a full ceasefire, suggesting that Putin rejected calls to accept an immediate ceasefire.
The White House says peace is within reach and that Putin wants to end the war with Ukraine.
The apparently cordial call is just the latest overture to Putin as Trump made quickly ending the conflict a top priority, even if it means handing a deal to Russia that would reward it for launching the invasion in the first place.
But Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Putin is just manipulating a war-weary world and hopes to grab more Ukrainian territory.
The groundwork for the Trump-Putin call was laid last week when White House special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow to discuss the ceasefire proposal and get Russian feedback.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier persuaded senior Ukrainian officials to accept a ceasefire without preconditions during talks in Saudi Arabia.
After Ukraine agreed to the ceasefire, Russia did not reject it outright, but Putin has raised several objections that could scuttle it.
In an ominous sign for Ukraine, Trump has also said Washington and Moscow have already begun discussing “dividing up certain assets” as part of a deal to end the conflict.
Trump has said control of land and power plants would be part of the conversation, which comes on the anniversary of Russia annexing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula 11 years ago. That bold land grab set the stage for Russia to invade Ukraine proper in 2022.
Russia since has sought to annex four Ukrainian provinces. Two of those provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, are almost entirely occupied by Russian invasion forces. The other two, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, are divided between Ukrainian and Russian control.
Trump hasn’t been shy about using his leverage to force Ukraine to be more flexible.
After a disastrous Feb. 28 White House meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump temporarily cut off some military intelligence-sharing and aid to Ukraine. It was restored after the Ukrainians last week signed off on the Trump administration’s 30-day ceasefire proposal.
It remains to be seen if Trump is willing to take a similar hard line with Putin.