Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine's "energy and infrastructure" but rejected President Trump's offer for a complete, unconditional cease-fire on Tuesday. According to the White House, Trump accepted Putin's revisions and said talks would continue on how to achieve the rest of the U.S. President's cease-fire objectives.
"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 ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace," the White House said in a statement. "These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East," the statement from White House further read.
Temporary but With Immediate Effect
The partial ceasefire deal will remain in place for 30 days, with negotiations for a lasting peace set to "begin immediately" in the Middle East. Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino posted on Twitter shortly before 11 a.m. ET that the call had started at 10 a.m. and was "going well."
Just after 11:30 a.m., he updated that the conversation was "still ongoing."
Trump and his national security team have been working to push Putin to accept the same 30-day agreement that Kyiv approved last week after negotiations in Saudi Arabia.
According to administration officials, the U.S. proposal aimed to determine which side of the conflict was genuinely willing to pursue peace. The plan required no preconditions beyond a commitment to diplomatic discussions, a temporary halt in hostilities, an exchange of prisoners of war, and the return of Ukrainian children taken by Russia.
Since the beginning of his administration, Trump has advocated for Russia and Ukraine to first "end the violence" before engaging in negotiations under a cease-fire, according to Gen. Keith Kellogg, the special envoy to Ukraine.
Putin Kept Trump Waiting
Ahead of the scheduled call, Putin did not appear to be too desperate to talk with Trump about the cease-fire proposal. By 5:30 p.m. Moscow time, he was still addressing the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
At the summit, Putin spoke to oligarchs about what he described as "the decline of Western dominance," according to Russia's state-run TASS news agency.
In a video clip from the summit, an interviewer pointed out that Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had told the Russian president's call with Trump was "supposed to last until" 6 p.m.
Putin dismissed the comment, suggesting he could remain on stage longer and jokingly saying, "I don't listen [to Peskov]."
The Russian leader had the opportunity to approve the cease-fire as early as Friday when special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Moscow to present him with the deal that Ukraine had signed two days earlier.
Putin sent Witkoff's back to Washington with little more than a request for Trump to contact him directly to negotiate the potential agreement.
The Russian president made the American delegation wait that day as well, delaying Witkoff for nearly eight hours—during which he attended a dinner with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, according to Kremlin reports.
However, Trump dismissed claims that Witkoff was left idle, saying that the envoy was engaged in discussions with lower-ranking Russian officials rather than simply waiting.
