Trump-Putin: What exactly was agreed during phone call?

Last week's joint U.S.-Ukraine statement, backing a Washington-proposed 30-day ceasefire in the conflict with Russia, was seen as shifting the onus back to Moscow.

As details emerge of Vladimir Putin's call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday, how much of what was agreed in Saudi Arabia has the Russian President signed up to?

Full temporary ceasefire

Putin declined to endorse the full 30-day ceasefire that Trump hoped would be the first step toward a permanent peace deal.

The Kremlin said that for a wide truce to work Ukraine must not be allowed to rearm.

Experts said Putin avoided making significant concessions in what could be a play for time as Russian troops advance in eastern Ukraine.

"This call brought to light how difficult of an interlocutor Russia is going to be and the general unwillingness of Russia to talk about making real progress in stopping this war," said Kristine Berzina, a managing director at the German Marshall Fund think tank. 

In a social media post after the call, Trump said he and Putin had agreed to work quickly toward a ceasefire and eventually a permanent peace agreement.

"Many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed, including the fact that thousands of soldiers are being killed, and both President Putin and President Zelenskyy would like to see it end," he wrote.

Territory

Besides failing to announce the full ceasefire sought by Trump, the two sides also made no mention of potential territorial concessions.

Trump had hinted at Ukraine giving up territory, infuriating Kyiv.

Energy facility attacks

During the call Putin agreed to stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities temporarily. Ukraine had said it would support the scaled-back agreement, which would require both countries to hold off firing on each other's energy infrastructure for about a month.  

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that Russia had called off a drone attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure targets and had shot down seven of its own drones.

"They were just lining up in combat order, six of them were shot down by 'Pantsirs' (a surface-to-air missile system) and another one was destroyed by a (Russian) military aircraft," Peskov said.

Peskov in turn accused Ukraine of not respecting the 30-day moratorium and said it had tried to attack Russian energy infrastructure overnight.

"Unfortunately, we see that so far there has been no reciprocity on the part of the Kyiv side. There have been attempts to strike at our energy infrastructure facilities," Peskov said.

Since the onset of the conflict in 2022, Ukraine has tried to fight back against its much larger neighbor with drone and missile strikes deep in Russian territory, including on energy facilities. Those attacks, which Moscow says amount to terrorism, have allowed Kyiv to keep pressure on Russia's economy.

That means a ceasefire on attacking energy infrastructure could benefit Russia, said Maria Snegovaya, senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

German Marshall Fund think tank chief Kristine Berzina called the limited ceasefire "a very small step forward."

Aid

Trump told Fox News aid to Ukraine did not come up in the conversation.

However, Russia confirmed it had called for a "complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv".

Putin also said an "essential" condition for any truce would be halting the "forced mobilization" of Ukrainian soldiers and the country's "rearmament".

Future talks

The White House said talks on a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea as well as a more complete ceasefire and a permanent peace deal would begin immediately.

It was unclear whether Ukraine would be involved in those talks, which Trump envoy Steve Witkoff said will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

"Up until recently, we really didn't have consensus around these two aspects - the energy and infrastructure ceasefire and the Black Sea moratorium on firing - and today we got to that place, and I think it's a relatively short distance to a full ceasefire from there," Witkoff told Fox News' Hannity program.

With Ukraine and its European allies bristling at being left out of U.S.-Russian negotiations, the Kremlin trumpeted further bilateral talks.

"The leaders reaffirmed their intention to continue efforts to achieve a Ukrainian settlement bilaterally," it said.

"Russian and American expert groups are being set up for this purpose."

Ukrainian response

Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of effectively rejecting the U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal, reporting a barrage of strikes hours after Moscow agreed to temporarily pause attacks on energy facilities.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia launched more than 40 drones late on Tuesday, hitting a hospital in Sumy and other areas, including the Kyiv region that surrounds the Ukrainian capital.

"Today, Putin de facto rejected the proposal for a complete ceasefire. It would be right for the world to reject in response any attempts by Putin to drag out the war," Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

International response

Some European leaders said Putin's rejection of Trump's proposed full truce was proof that Moscow was not seeking peace. The offer to temporarily stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities counted for "nothing" and Trump would have to win greater concessions, Germany's defense minister said.

"Attacks on civilian infrastructure in the first night after this supposedly pivotal and great phone call have not abated," Boris Pistorius told German broadcaster ZDF. "Putin is playing a game here and I'm sure that the American president won't be able to sit and watch for much longer."

But other allies were more hopeful. The Putin-Trump call was "a first step, then we'll see when the negotiations begin," said Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, noting that the sides agreed to discuss truce proposals at meetings in Saudi Arabia.