US President Donald Trump denied during Fox News interview on 18 March that he discussed American aid to Ukraine in his recent phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on 18 March.
“No, we didn’t talk about aid actually. We didn’t talk about aid at all. We talked about a lot of things, but aid was never discussed,” Trump said, responding to the host’s mention of Kremlin media claims that Putin “demanded immediate ceasation of aid” to accept a 30 day ceasefire proposal.
The nearly two-hour phone conversation between Trump and Putin took place on the evening of 18 March.
According to Trump, the conversation was not the call that started it all, because he had already spoken to Putin before, but it was not publicly announced.
“It actually started three or four weeks ago […] It’s a continuation of a positive trend,” Trump claimed.
According to the White House, both leaders agreed that progress toward peace would begin with “an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical talks on implementing a maritime truce in the Black Sea, a complete ceasefire, and establishing permanent peace.”
The Kremlin reported Putin supported Trump’s idea of a month-long moratorium on mutual strikes against energy infrastructure. Putin “responded positively to this initiative and immediately gave Russian military the appropriate command,” according to Kremlin sources.
Trump’s special envoy, Witkoff, said Fox News that a full ceasefire could be achieved in a couple of week.
Putin also outlined several “essential points” regarding ceasefire monitoring along the entire combat contact line and expressed the need to “stop forced mobilization” in Ukraine and rearmament of Ukrainian armed forces. Putin also announced a prisoner exchange.
President Zelenskyy confirmed that on 19 March there would be an exchange of prisoners with Russia. It was reportedly a pre-planned exchange.
The phone call between Trump and Putin on 18 March come after the US special envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Kremlin to present a 30-day ceasefire proposal, agreed between the US and Ukraine on 11 March. After the meeting with Witkoff, Putin claimed that Moscow would accept the ceasefire but demanded Ukraine freeze mobilization, military training, and foreign military aid deliveries during the 30-day period.
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