Trump says Ukraine truce bid ‘on track’ after Zelensky call

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump hailed a “very good” call with Ukraine´s Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, a day after Russia´s Vladimir Putin agreed to temporarily halt attacks on Kyiv´s power plants.

Trump said efforts to secure a full ceasefire in Russia´s three-year-old invasion remained “on track” despite the fact that his call with Putin failed to produce any broader peace deal.

As Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of continuing attacks, Zelensky said after the “frank” call that Ukraine was ready to pause strikes on both Russian energy and civilian infrastructure. Trump said he spoke for around an hour with his Ukrainian counterpart, their first conversation since they had a blazing televised row in the Oval Office just over two weeks ago.

“Much of the 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,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. “We are very much on track.”

The White House later said that during the call Trump had floated US “ownership” of Ukrainian power plants as it would be the “best protection” for them.

The billionaire former real estate mogul has already pushed Kyiv into a deal to give the United States preferential access to its critical mineral resources. Trump also pledged to help Ukraine get more air defense equipment from Europe, a statement from National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.