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Ukraine Cease-Fire Hinges on Trump Call With Putin

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WSJ

Mar 18, 2025 12:40 PM IST

Kyiv accuses Moscow of prolonging the war through talks.

President Trump told reporters that he would use his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to save Ukrainian soldiers who are ‘deep in trouble.’

WASHINGTON—President Trump’s hopes of getting Moscow to agree to a 30-day cease-fire with Ukraine are pinned to a phone call planned for Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is likely to push for territorial and other concessions.

Ukraine Cease-Fire Hinges on Trump Call With Putin PREMIUM

Ukraine Cease-Fire Hinges on Trump Call With Putin

In Moscow, the Kremlin dampened hopes of any breakthrough. On Monday a top foreign-ministry official said that any peace deal would have to guarantee Ukraine’s neutral status and appeared to rule out any European peacekeeping force on Ukrainian soil, a key provision of Kyiv and Western allies of any peace deal.

Other Russian officials have been calling for a deal that addresses what Moscow calls the “root causes” of the conflict, signaling the Kremlin wants to retain key provinces of Ukraine and exert political influence over the rest of the country.

With Moscow showing little sign of budging from its initial war aims, Trump’s second official phone call with Putin since he was inaugurated is expected to end with some diplomatic niceties and a promise for more talks.

After agreeing earlier this month to a cease-fire plan promoted by the U.S., Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the U.S. to exert pressure on Russia to end the war. In a weekly video address he accused Putin of using talks with the U.S. in Saudi Arabia as a delay tactic and covering up its opposition to a cease-fire.

“After the talks in Jeddah and the American proposal for a cease-fire on the front line, Russia stole almost another week—a week of war that only Russia wants,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address Sunday.

Moscow’s reticence comes despite Trump’s warm words toward Putin and broad rhetorical concessions by the Trump administration to Russia as it bargains with Moscow for an end to the war.

Over the weekend Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, said that Ukraine would have to surrender “some type of territory” in a peace deal. Asked on Monday about reports that Trump on Tuesday would offer Putin territorial concessions, such as recognizing Crimea as part of Russia, National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes denied the president planned to make any offer.

“We have made no such commitments and we will not negotiate this deal through the media,” Hughes said.

Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who visited Moscow last week, told Face the Nation Sunday that it was “unfortunate” that some European leaders thought that Putin wasn’t interested in a peace deal.

“I know what I heard, the body language I witnessed,” Witkoff told Face the Nation.

Trump’s rhetoric, meanwhile, has bent toward the Kremlin’s version of events in Ukraine as he pushes for a deal. In an Oval Office meeting with Zelensky last month, Trump blamed Ukraine for starting the war.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said that he would be using the phone call with Putin to save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers who are “deep in trouble,” apparently referring to a disputed report promoted by Moscow that Ukrainian forces have been surrounded by a Russian counteroffensive in Kursk and are on the cusp of being massacred.

“I believe if it wasn’t for me they would be—they wouldn’t be here any longer,” Trump said of the Ukrainians.

Kyiv has announced in recent days that Ukrainian troops withdrew from most of Kursk province in Russia, which Ukraine had hoped would serve as a bargaining chip in talks after seizing dozens of towns and villages there in August. Ukrainian officials have acknowledged a retreat there but repeatedly denied claims by Trump and Putin of a large-scale encirclement of troops.

John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who is now a senior director at the Atlantic Council think tank, said that the Kremlin’s talks with Trump and Witkoff stand little chance of reaching a peace deal soon, but they do serve Moscow’s interest in persuading them that Kyiv, not Moscow, is to blame for the conflict.

Herbst noted that Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, has spent eight hours in meetings with Putin in recent trips. He said Putin will now spend time on the phone with Trump as part of a delaying tactic.

“He has wisely praised Trump’s cease-fire plans, but says he has problems with the nuances,” he said. “He wants to drag things out.”

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News Radio: “I don’t think there’s been movement to our satisfaction from anybody yet. I think what we have seen is that we’re closer—we’re not close to peace. I mean, I think there’s a lot to be worked on, but we’re closer than we were two weeks ago or closer than we were six months ago.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there are still no plans for a meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders that would signal a wider deal in the offing. Though Trump has mentioned the possibility of a meeting, Peskov said there are no dates, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. “There are not even any plans yet.”

In an interview with Russia’s Izvestia newspaper published Monday, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, signaled that Moscow’s aims, including a retreat of NATO from Russia’s borders, haven’t changed since 2021, shortly before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Grushko noted that as of today, “the conflict has reached a phase where the West is strategically defeated.”

Write to Alan Cullison at alan.cullison@wsj.com

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