WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed Wednesday to move forward with the partial ceasefire with Russia that Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Tuesday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump national security adviser Mike Waltz said after Trump spoke to Zelenskyy by phone Wednesday that the two leaders agreed "on a partial ceasefire against energy," according to a joint White House statement.
Zelenskyy wrote in a lengthy post on X, "One of the first steps toward fully ending the war could be ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure. I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it."
The White House also appeared to confirm that Zelenskyy and Trump discussed the prospect of the U.S. taking ownership of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in south Ukraine.
"American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday.
Rubio and Waltz's statement, however, did not mention that the ceasefire would apply to civilian infrastructure as Zelenskyy suggested, and Leavitt refused to answer questions at an afternoon White House news briefing asking for clarification about the discrepancy in details.
Leavitt also dodged a question about whether Trump is still considering ramping up U.S. sanctions on Russia.
Asked whether the possible minerals deal between the United States and Ukraine was still on the table, Leavitt suggested that both sides have moved on from it because now the conflict is advancing toward a potential longer-term peace agreement.
The White House also rejected Kremlin demands that the United States stop sending intelligence and weapons to Ukraine. Leavitt said Wednesday said all intelligence sharing between the United States and Ukraine will continue.
These developments came after Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of air attacks on civilian targets and infrastructure overnight, less than 24 hours after Putin told Trump that he would halt attacks on Ukraine's energy system for 30 days.
Zelenskyy said in his statement that he and Trump have instructed their teams "to resolve technical issues related to implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire" and will meet in the coming days in Saudi Arabia to "continue coordinating steps toward peace."
According to Rubio and Waltz, Zelenskyy asked Trump for the United States to provide additional air defense systems to protect civilians in Ukraine, including Patriot missile systems.
"President Trump agreed to work with him to find what was available, particularly in Europe," the two officials said in their statement.
Their statement also said that Trump fully briefed Zelenskyy on his call with Putin on Tuesday and that he and Zelenskyy "reviewed the situation in Kursk and agreed to share information closely between their defense staff as the battlefield situation evolved."
The statement noted several times that Zelenskyy thanked Trump for his leadership and expressed gratitude for the administration's support provided to Ukraine. Zelenskyy clashed with Trump and Vice President JD Vance during a meeting in the Oval Office late last month, in which Trump and Vance chastised him for not having done enough to thank the United States.
Trump said Wednesday morning on Truth Social that he and Zelenskyy had a “very good telephone call,” which lasted about an hour. Trump said much of their 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.”
“We are very much on track, and I will ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, to give an accurate description of the points discussed,” Trump wrote.
In a long phone call with Trump on Tuesday, Putin declined to endorse a 30-day ceasefire endorsed by Trump and accepted by Zelenskyy. But, according to a Kremlin readout of their conversation Tuesday, Putin did agree “to mutually refrain from strikes on energy infrastructure for 30 days.”
That differed slightly from Trump's post on Truth Social and a White House readout that said Russia had agreed to an “energy and infrastructure” ceasefire.
At a news conference Wednesday, Zelenskyy said, “Putin’s words are very, very different from reality,” adding that around 120 strike drones and six missiles struck Ukraine, including its energy facilities, overnight after, he said, Putin “gave the order” to stop attacking Ukraine’s “energy sector.”
In comments late Tuesday, Zelenskyy said that Russia fired dozens of Iranian-made Shahed drones at “civilian infrastructure” in several regions across Ukraine and that one had hit a hospital in the city of Sumy, in the country’s northeast.
“It is precisely such night attacks by Russia that destroy our energy, our infrastructure, the normal life of Ukrainians,” Zelenskyy said. “And the fact that this night was no exception shows that we must continue to put pressure on Russia for the sake of peace.”
Ukrainian Railways, Ukraine’s national railway company, said Wednesday that Russia “struck the railway power system” in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region with drones.
Ukraine's air force said that it shot down 72 drones overnight and that Russia had also launched at least two ballistic missiles.
Russian authorities accused Ukraine of launching drones and said an oil depot had caught fire because of crashed debris in the southwestern city of Krasnodar.
“The pipeline between the tanks was damaged,” the region’s emergency headquarters said in a statement early Wednesday, adding there were no casualties. “The automatic fire extinguishing and cooling system was engaged.”
Later, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine of trying to sabotage the agreements made by Trump and Putin with the attacks on Krasnodar. He added that the leaders understood each other.
It is unclear whether both Kyiv and Moscow intended to strike energy targets.
Still, despite the verbal agreement on the limited ceasefire by Putin, Ukrainians near the front line appear to have no faith in his word.
Outside Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, in a mobile command center his team built, Ivan Kravchenko, a sergeant in the Reconnaissance Battalion of the 92nd Assault Brigade, told NBC News that “Russia wants to play its game, and they are interested in the truce only in order to increase their military power.”
His unit commander, Leonid Maslov, who worked as a tax lawyer before the war, agreed.
“Putin is trying to deceive everybody, because he thinks he is a master of spy games and deceit,” Maslov said as he sat in front of a monitor a nearby safehouse, showing their operation in real time with a Russian mortar position being attacked by Ukrainian bombs.
"Nobody can trust him," Maslov said of Putin.
Richard Engel and Gabe Joselow reported from Kharkiv and Mithil Aggarwal from Hong Kong.
