Russia Agrees to Partial Ceasefire after Trump-Putin Call, Ball Now in Ukraine’s Court

by Maine Wire Staff | Mar 18, 2025

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a limited 30-day ceasefire in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine after a nearly two hour phone call with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, the White House announced.

The offer by the Russians refers only to attacks on energy and infrastructure targets, falling short of President Trump’s goal to broker a more comprehensive pause in the fighting, is nonetheless more than was expected after Trump’s special envoy Steven Witkoff visited Moscow last week.

Putin also said on the call with Trump that he is willing to proceed with a swap of 175 prisoners being returned by both Russia and Ukraine, the read-out indicated.

Ukraine would now have to agree to this limited cease-fire agreement for it to take effect. Special Envoy Witkoff had brought a broader ceasefire proposal by Kyiv to Moscow on March 13, but sources close to the Kremlin indicated it did not contain the guarantees they sought.

Putin’s goals include territorial concessions by Ukraine as well as its agreement not to enter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), or to host foreign troops on its soil. These could be politically impossible terms for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept, but they are not dissimilar to Russia’s demands prior to its February 2022 invasion of its neighbor.

U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said this weekend that the U.S. might consider asking Ukraine to cede territory, including the possibility of recognizing Russia’s claim to Crimea.

“We’ll be talking about land. We’ll be talking about power plants because that’s a big question, but I think we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides,” Trump said on Sunday.

According to read-outs of the call, Trump repeatedly referenced the Zaporozhia nuclear power plant in his talk with Putin. If Ukraine agrees to the limited cease-fire, that facility and others would be off limits to Russian attacks for a month, allowing negotiations to continue about a wider agreement.


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