Over the course of the war, Russia has pummeled Ukraine's energy infrastructure, exhausting and terrorizing its population.

So What Did Putin and Trump Agree On? A Partial Ukraine Cease-Fire, At Least.

18 Mar 2025, 20:46 by Mike Eckel · Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty · Join

It's a cease-fire. But what kind of cease-fire?

More than three years into the Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine, the White House and the Kremlin on March 18 announced a broad agreement aimed at pausing a conflict that has killed and wounded more than 1 million men on both sides.

The contours of the deal were announced after a roughly two-hour phone call between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin -- the second such call of Trump's presidency, and arguably the most consequential to date.

Ukraine, under intense pressure from the White House that included an acrimonious Oval Office meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had already signed on to the US proposal for a 30-day pause in fighting, with the caveat that Russia had to as well.

So What Did Moscow Agree To, Exactly?

"My main conclusion here is that Moscow is quite comfortable with Trump, but for reasons other than almost everyone discusses," Nikolai Sokov, a former Russian diplomat who is now with the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, told RFE/RL. "Moscow can bargain with Trump whereas Europe insists its position is right and should be accepted without bargaining."

Where actual military action is concerned, the agreement does nothing on the battlefield itself, where Russian troops have, until recently, been grinding down Ukrainian defenses along a 1,100-kilometer front line.

Ukraine's troops are withdrawing from Russia's Kursk region, which it invaded nearly seven months ago in a bid to relieve pressure elsewhere on the front lines, and also gain a bargaining chip for future peace talks.

Prominent in the deal announced on March 18 is the focus on energy infrastructure.

Since at least November 2022, Russia has pummeled Ukraine's power grid: power stations, transmission lines, transformers, substations -- a strategy aimed at exhausting and terrorizing Ukraine's civilian population, sometimes attributed to the former top commander of the Russian invasion whose nickname is General Armageddon.

(Attacking civilian infrastructure is also allegedly a war crime, for which the International Criminal Court has brought charges against two top Russian military officers.)

In the face of those attacks, Ukraine has struggled to keep the lights -- and heat -- on, but has managed to muddle through with a mix of local ingenuity and large-scale Western support. At the same time, Ukraine has ramped up its homegrown industry of drones, and even cruise missiles, which has increasingly used to target Russia's energy infrastructure: oil refineries, pipelines, and military facilities.

Speaking at a news conference in Helsinki, Zelenskyy, who in the past has signaled support for a cease-fire exclusive of ground actions, appeared to sprinkle cold water on the new deal.

"We always supported the idea not to hit energy targets, as well as targets at sea, food production, and transport targets," he said after the Kremlin-White House phone call was announced. "Now, we need to understand what the details of this agreement are. We don't know that."

"This could be a way to move toward a cease-fire," Zelenskyy said. "Step by step. The rest though is the statistics of the reality: hundreds of drones and missiles that keep raining not on the battlefield but all over."

The groundwork for the cease-fire was announced in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia after meetings of Ukrainian and US delegations. Two days after, Putin responded to the proposal with what amounted to a "yes, but" reply.

"During the conversation, Donald Trump put forward a proposal for the parties to the conflict to mutually refrain from attacks on energy infrastructure facilities for 30 days," the Kremlin said in its read-out of the March 18 call. "Vladimir Putin responded positively to the initiative and immediately gave the Russian military the corresponding order."

A limited cessation of targeting on energy facilities in Ukraine -- and in Russia -- is a win for Kyiv.

However, it may end up being more of a win for Moscow, Sokov said.

"Note that for 30 days Russia will be building weapons and will be able to resume large-scale strikes if necessary," he told RFE/RL. "Ukraine, however, will not be able to fully fix damage to energy infrastructure, of which it has lost between one-third and one-half according to different estimates."

Left Unsaid

What was absent from the talks, at least in the public read-outs from the Kremlin and the White House, was any mention of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant -- Europe's largest -- which US envoy Steve Witkoff said might be on the table.

Nor was there mention of US recognition of Russia's claim to have annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, something else that was rumored to be possible.

Nor was there reference to Ukraine's ambitions to join NATO, something Moscow vehemently opposes, and even cited as a justification for its decision to invade in February 2022.

The White House statement did mention broader geopolitical issues, a nod toward a position Moscow has leaning into: that any deal with Washington should be a wider deal touching on issues unrelated to Ukraine.

That's a recurring theme for Putin who's used the term "root causes" as shorthand for the Kremlin's dissatisfaction with the entire post-Cold War international arrangement.

But broadening talks beyond Ukraine itself was something that Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, resisted.

"The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime cease-fire in the Black Sea, full cease-fire and permanent peace," the White House said. "These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East."

"They further discussed the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons and will engage with others to ensure the broadest possible application," it said. "The two leaders shared the view that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel."

It was also unclear whether the subtle difference in wording between statements was significant: "energy infrastructure" per the Kremlin versus "energy and infrastructure" per the White House.

And proliferation of strategic weapons, nuclear or otherwise, has in the past been an easy goal that Washington and Moscow have shared, until distrust and political suspicions seeped into the effort.

The two countries, who hold the world's two largest nuclear arsenals, are still bound by the last major arms control treaty between them, though it's due to lapse next year and there's been no effort at all to start talks on a successor treaty.

In the end, though, broadening the scope of discussions fits into the Kremlin's wider hopes for a wider rework on international rules: Moscow's desire to be treated as an equal by the United States -- as it was during the Soviet Union.