The US says “peace has never been closer” after a Donald Trump-Volodymyr Zelenskyy phone call. Zelenskyy called the conversation “frank” and “positive” as he asked for air defence help. There was also an update on intelligence sharing. Listen to The World as you scroll.
Wednesday 19 March 2025 22:54, UK
Security and defence analyst Michael Clarke returns tomorrow for his weekly Q&A on the Ukraine war – covering anything from the battlefield to the negotiating table.
He’ll tackle as many of your questions as he can at 1pm – submit yours in the box above.
The 30-day pause in airstrikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure that Donald Trump got Vladimir Putin to agree to lasted perhaps a few hours.
The White House claimed before and after the call that “we’ve never been closer to a peace deal”.
But instead, Trump appears to have achieved little in his conversation with Putin, whose “red lines” seem very much intact as his troops continue to hammer the Ukrainian frontlines and with Volodymyr Zelenskyy accusing him of hitting Ukrainian energy infrastructure overnight
As the fallout from the latest development in the Ukraine war continues, foreign news reporter Michael Drummond takes a look at how the “dealmaker-in-chief” has fared in his various international interactions.
Donald Trump does not know how to handle Vladimir Putin, the former US ambassador to Ukraine has said.
Steven Pifer told Sky’s The World he’s been watching developments closely in recent days, and has assessed that Putin doesn’t see any strength in the White House.
Discussing so-called concessions made by Putin in a call with the president yesterday, he said he “cannot see anything of value to the United States that Trump has received in return”.
“It’s not the way to deal with Putin – and I don’t think Putin sees strength in the White House at the moment,” Pifer added.
He also suggested three things Trump could do immediately to put Putin on the back foot.
“We’ve used a lot of carrots with Moscow – I think it’s time for some sticks,” Pifer said.
He said moves like those outlined above would force Putin to “get serious” and see that, without backing down on some of his outlandish demands, the war will continue with “increasing military, economic and political costs for Russia”.
“Until you do that, I’m not sure you’re going to get Putin to move off of his maximalist demands.”
These images show members of Ukraine’s mechanised battalion 93rd brigade being put through their paces on a training course.
“The obstacle course tempers the character of recruits,” its commander said of the pictures.
“You can do anything to survive.”
By Mark Stone, US correspondent
The tone has changed totally.
It’s a remarkable turnaround from the Oval Office meltdown to the perfect phone call.
President Trump is wholly transactional.
His desire for give and take far outweighs any ideological instincts.
He has no particular alignment to Ukraine or, for that matter, to Russia – he just wants a deal. Peace would stop the killing as he has said repeatedly.
It would also allow for deals which can benefit America – recouping the taxpayer money spent on Ukraine and reconnecting the American economy with Russia.
But trumping all that is his legacy and his image. He wants to be seen as the peacemaker president.
Since the Oval Office moment, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy seems now to have recognised all that.
Watch: Inside Zelenskyy and Trump’s clash
Ukraine’s approach towards Trump has changed. Zelenskyy is now playing his game – transactionalism.
The minerals deal hasn’t dissolved. The indications I am getting is that it’s essentially been upgraded and broadened to a wider scope – fuller economic cooperation.
Zelenskyy needs to encourage America deep into his country economically.
Has he bought into the idea that a US economic footprint amounts to a key part of a security guarantee?
The old adage is: “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.”
That’s too true with President Trump.
Zelenskyy now feels like he’s at the table and I’m told he doesn’t feel coerced.
The challenges remain huge though – he doesn’t trust Putin.
That’s what he tried to tell Trump in the Oval Office. The performance that day proved to him that Trump is inclined to trust Putin.
Zelenskyy must use transactionalism to draw an impatient Trump in.
President Trump is in a hurry for a deal.
He’s inclined to accept wholly disingenuous commitments from Russia, or as one source put it to me: “Trump has a high tolerance for bullsh*t…”
That’s the jeopardy for Zelenskyy.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he would like Donald Trump to visit Ukraine.
In a comprehensive news conference this evening, the Ukrainian president also said a halt on energy strikes could be established quickly.
Here’s the key things you need to know…
Energy ceasefire
While expressing optimism that a partial ceasefire blocking strikes on energy infrastructure could be set up quickly – Zelenskyy warned that Ukraine would respond in kind if Moscow violated its terms.
He also said he was not sure how such a ceasefire could be monitored, but that discussions on this were ongoing.
Substantive call with Trump
Zelenskyy told reporters that his call with Trump was “probably his most substantive” yet, but that he had not felt any pressure from the US leader – despite it being the first time the pair had spoken since the disastrous meeting in the Oval Office last month.
He also called on Trump to visit Ukraine, as he believes it would help the US president in his quest secure peace in the region.
Ceasefire talks in coming days
Zelenskyy also said he expected officials from his country to meet with their US counterparts on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
But he warned that Putin does not want serious talks on peace until Russia has expelled all Ukrainian troops from its Kursk region.
Zelenskyy also said that Trump understands that Ukraine will never accept occupied lands as Russian. He did not speculate as to where the US leader stands on this, but Trump has suggested in the past that some lands would likely have to go to Russia as part of a peace deal.
Nuclear power deal
The president was also asked about suggestions the US could take over Ukrainian power plants in a form of security guarantee.
Zelenskyy said discussions were in the early phases around US involvement in the restoration of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – the largest in Europe – but did not mention the other three plants on Ukrainian soil.
We’ve been bringing you all the latest after the phone call between presidents Trump and Zelenskyy today.
One of the many topics mentioned by the leaders was children abducted from Ukraine – something Sky News has covered in depth since the war began.
Now, the US State Department has denied that data collected in a government-funded programme that helps track thousands of abducted Ukrainian kids has been deleted.
But the department did acknowledge that the scheme had been terminated as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping freeze on almost all foreign aid.
‘The data exists’
Politicians from the Democratic Party wrote to Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, to raise the alarm about the possible loss of data and satellite imagery – thought to be tracking around 30,000 children.
But Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokeswoman, insisted “the data exists”, adding today: “It was not in the State Department’s control. It was the people running that framework, but we know who is running the data and the website, and we know fully that the data exists and it’s not been deleted and it’s not missing.”
Bruce also referenced Trump and Zelenskyy discussing the issue, as evidence the US is still taking it seriously.
“The president of the most powerful country in the world, saying, ‘I’m going to do something here’… I think that’s a pretty good, clear indication that we can still work on issues that matter and make them happen without it being in a certain structure that has existed,” she said.
Putin’s arrest warrant
Conducted by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, the tracking research was part of an effort that began under President Joe Biden to document potential violations of international law and crimes against humanity by Russia during its invasion of Ukraine.
The Trump administration paused the scheme on 25 January.
Ukraine has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the UN’s definition of genocide.
Russia has said it has been evacuating people voluntarily and to protect vulnerable children from the war zone.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for the alleged war crime of deportation of Ukrainian children.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, has said this evening that Russia is still attacking Ukraine.
“Once again, a large number of Russian drones are attacking Ukraine, flying against civilians,” he said.
“Russia must stop these strikes in more than just words,” he added in a post on Telegram.
In these talks for a ceasefire, the Russians first want all of their issues addressed, our military analyst Michael Clarke said today.
That’s a stark contrast to the Ukrainians, who haven’t set conditions for a pause – and this puts strain on the Americans, who want a “quick-ish” deal.
Clarke added: “The question is how much patience have the Americans got to play this game?
“The Russians are very good at this, and I keep saying Putin is an old KGB man, he’s been doing this his whole career, he knows how to do all this.
“I’m not so sure the Americans with their business background are really so accomplished at this sort of thing.
“The business community want to move in, make a quick-ish deal and move on, but in political terms, these things can go on for a very long time.”
Will Trump turn on Putin?
Trump is capable of “turning on a dime” against Putin, Clarke added, but so far there is nothing to indicate that’s likely to happen.
“Putin’s calculating how long he can needle Trump into more concessions – what will he get? Or will Trump turn on him and say ‘enough’,” Clarke said.
“The longer this goes on, the bigger the turnaround would be.”
The relationship between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been complex over the years.
Relations between the two presidents extend as far back as 2019, the year the Ukrainian leader took office.
It has since weathered the start of the war in Ukraine, Trump’s re-election and last month’s heated exchange in the Oval Office, in which Zelenskyy was accused of being “disrespectful” to his country’s most powerful ally.
Here, news reporter Lauren Russell looks back at the key moments that have helped shape the pair’s relationship and how it has changed over the years.
In this post, we’ll examine the differences and similarities we’ve noticed in the readouts and information surrounding Donald Trump’s calls with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy respectively.
Length
Trump said his call with Zelenskyy lasted around an hour, while his chat with Putin went on for around an hour and a half.
That could be because they had more to discuss – or because the US leader’s call with his Russian counterpart may have required translation at both ends – whereas Zelenskyy speaks strong English.
Tone
Our correspondent David Blevins noted that Trump’s message after the chat with Zelenskyy was markedly calm in tone – without the capitals letters usually sprayed across his social media posts.
It’s similar to his post yesterday on his call with Putin, where there was only one word in capital letters – the word ‘end’, as in to end the conflict.
The readouts
The readout of the Putin call was 226 words and released by the White House, whereas the Zelenskyy one was issued by Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz on behalf of the president and was a whopping 480 words.
Read into all of that what you will…
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