Putin agrees to Trump’s proposal for 30-day halt on energy strikes

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Tuesday to a proposal by US President Donald Trump for Russia and Ukraine to stop hitting each other's energy infrastructure for 30 days and gave a corresponding order to the Russian military, the Kremlin said.

The Kremlin said in a statement that the two leaders had a "detailed and frank exchange of views" on Ukraine during a phone call in which Putin had said that a resolution of the conflict must be "comprehensive, sustainable and long-term", taking into account Russia's own security interests and the root causes of the war.

The two leaders discussed a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, to which Ukraine agreed last week. The Kremlin said Putin had raised "significant points" about monitoring such a truce and preventing it from being used by Ukraine to mobilise more soldiers and rearm itself.

"It was emphasized that the key condition for preventing the escalation of the conflict and working towards its resolution by political and diplomatic means should be a complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv," the Kremlin said.

Earlier, the both sides said the talks, which began at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT), had later concluded.

White House chief of staff Dan Scavino had said earlier that the call had been "going well". Kirill Dmitriev, a Putin envoy, said that under the leadership of Trump and Putin the world had become a much safer place.

Ukraine has already agreed to the US -proposed ceasefire in Europe's biggest conflict since World War Two, in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or wounded, millions have been displaced and towns have been reduced to rubble.

Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, said last week he supported in principle Washington's proposal for a truce but that his forces would fight on until several crucial conditions were worked out.

Trump hopes also to secure progress towards a longer-term peace plan, which he has hinted could include territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said before the call that Trump and Putin would discuss settling the conflict in Ukraine and normalising relations between Russia and the United States, and that they would speak "for as long as they deem necessary."

Peskov said there was already a "certain understanding" between the two leaders, based on a phone call they held on February 12 and on subsequent high-level contacts between the two countries.

Zelenskiy says sovereignty not negotiable

Trump's shifts in US policy and his overtures to Putin since returning to the White House in January have left traditional US allies wary.

Ukraine and its Western allies have long described Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an imperialist land grab and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Putin of deliberately prolonging the war.

Zelenskiy, who arrived in Finland on Tuesday to discuss the NATO state's support for Ukraine, says Ukraine's sovereignty is not negotiable and Russia must surrender the territory it has seized. He says Moscow's ambitions will not stop at Ukraine if it is allowed to keep the territory it has seized.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned on Tuesday that Russia had massively expanded its military-industrial production capacity in preparation for "future confrontation with European democracies."

Speaking to Trump late on Monday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer "reiterated that all must work together to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position to secure a just and lasting peace," the British leader's spokesperson said.

Russia seized the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and controls most of four eastern Ukrainian regions following its invasion in February 2022. It controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory.

Putin said he sent troops into Ukraine because NATO's creeping expansion threatened Russia's security. He has demanded Ukraine drop its ambition of joining the Western military alliance.

Putin has also said Russia must keep control of Ukrainian territory it has seized, that Western sanctions should be eased and Kyiv must stage a presidential election. Zelenskiy, elected in 2019, rules under martial law he imposed because of the war.