President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that expected to speak with President Trump later on Wednesday to “discuss the details of the next steps” after the American leader’s call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
The Kremlin said that in a call with President Trump on Tuesday, Mr. Putin had agreed to a limited cease-fire that would halt attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. The proposal fell short of a 30-day unconditional truce that Kyiv had agreed to at Washington’s urging.
On Wednesday, Mr. Zelensky appeared open to the latest offer of a limited cease-fire, but said he thought that such a truce would need U.S. monitoring to work.
“If the Russians do not strike our facilities, we will definitely not strike theirs,” Mr. Zelensky told a news conference in Helsinki alongside Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb.
Underscoring the lack of trust between Ukraine and Russia, the two countries traded accusations on Wednesday about attacks against each others’ energy infrastructure.
Mr. Zelensky has characterized some of the conditions Mr. Putin has set for a broader cease-fire — such as a demand for a complete cessation of foreign military and intelligence aid to Ukraine — as an attempt to stall for time so that Russia can improve its forces’ positions on the battlefield and its negotiating hand.
The Ukrainian president reiterated that point on Tuesday night after the call between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump, saying that it was clear Russia was “not ready to end this war.”
“They are not even prepared to take the first step toward a cease-fire because they will continue to impose additional conditions,” he said.
The 30-day cease-fire proposal that Ukraine had agreed to after talks with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia was more extensive. It would have applied to land, air and sea — the first cessation of hostilities since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago. That monthlong truce, Mr. Zelensky has said, was meant to give time for fuller negotiations about a longer-term peace.
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