Washington — President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke on the phone Wednesday morning in a call that lasted roughly an hour, according to Mr. Trump.
“Just completed a very good telephone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “It lasted approximately one hour. Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs.”
The call comes a day after Mr. Trump’s lengthy call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which Mr. Trump said Putin agreed to a 30-day ceasefire against Ukraine’s energy and infrastructure. The commitment fell short of the full ceasefire pushed by the U.S. and agreed to by Ukraine. Hours after Mr. Trump and Putin hung up, Russia launched a series of drone strikes that struck civilian areas and damaged a hospital.
National security adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a joint statement that Mr. Trump “fully briefed” Zelenskyy on the call with Putin, and Mr. Trump and Zelenskyy “agreed to share information closely between their defense staffs as the battlefield situation evolved.” Zelenskyy, the two said, asked for additional air defense systems, and Mr. Trump “agreed to work with him to find what was available, particularly in Europe.”
Waltz and Rubio also said Mr. Trump suggested the U.S. could take ownership of and run Ukrainian’s nuclear power plants. “American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” their statement said.
Zelenskyy, for his part, said he had a “positive, very substantive, and frank conversation with president of the United States Donald Trump” and “thanked him for a good and productive start to the work of the Ukrainian and American teams in Jeddah.”
Zelenskyy said Tuesday night that “only a real halt to Russia’s attacks on civilian infrastructure can signal a genuine desire to end this war and bring peace closer.”
Wednesday’s call is the first known conversation between Mr. Trump and Zelenskyy their disastrous Oval Office meeting last month that resulted in U.S. officials telling Ukrainians to leave the White House early.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he believes Putin wants peace, with little evidence to support that claim, three years after Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
On Wednesday, special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said Putin is operating in “good faith” and the Russian leader issued an order following his call with Mr. Trump directing Russian forces not to attack Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
Zelenskyy has expressed skepticism toward the idea that Putin wants peace.
“We are skeptical when it comes to trusting the Russians,” Zelenskyy said Tuesday. “There is no trust to Putin. That’s why I am saying we need to understand how it will work technically so that it will not depend on their desire only. That is it.”
National security adviser Mike Waltz said “technical teams” are heading to Saudi Arabia on Monday to try to hammer out terms of a ceasefire.
“I spoke today with my Russian counterpart Yuri Ushakov about President Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine,” Waltz wrote on X. “We agreed our technical teams would meet in Riyadh in the coming days to focus on implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire President Trump secured from Russia.”
