Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to speak to Donald Trump this afternoon. Earlier, he and European leaders criticised Vladimir Putin after his forces launched attacks on Ukrainian energy targets overnight – despite Putin’s pledge to Trump last night. Listen to Trump 100 as you scroll.
Wednesday 19 March 2025 13:46, UK
Live reporting by Mark Wyatt
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.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is speaking at the University of Helsinki with Alexander Stubb, Finland’s president.
He says he hopes Trump will increase pressure on Russian individuals and entities violating US sanctions.
He adds that Vladimir Putin will look for “any possibility” to avoid a full ceasefire.
As a reminder, Zelenskyy and Trump are expected to speak on the phone at 2pm UK time.
A planned phone call between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump is due to take place at 2pm UK time, according to reports.
Zelenskyy revealed he would be speaking with Trump at a news conference in Finland this morning (see 12.38pm post).
US news website Axios is reporting the call will happen at 10am ET (2pm UK time).
Vladimir Putin says Russian troops are “completing the defeat” of Ukrainian forces in Kursk.
Kyiv sent its forces into the Russian region last August, aiming to divert Moscow’s troops from eastern Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any future talks.
Russia has managed to gain significant territorial gains in the region in recent weeks, with geolocated footage showing Ukraine’s foothold there is on the verge of being eradicated.
“Our troops have recently carried out a series of rapid, rather daring, effective operations and are completing the defeat of the enemy group of troops in the Kursk region,” Putin said.
According to the Kremlin’s readout of yesterday’s call between Putin and Donald Trump, the Russian leader confirmed Moscow is ready to guarantee the lives of Ukrainian soldiers who surrender in Kursk.
Shortly after the call, Trump repeated debunked claims that Russia has “encircled” some 2,500 Ukrainian troops in the region.
Speaking today, Zelenskyy said there is “no encirclement” in Kursk, labelling it “Russian disinformation”.
Earlier Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed he would speak to Donald Trump today.
Addressing media in Helsinki, Zelenskyy said he would be “discussing the details” of Trump’s call with Vladimir Putin last night.
The exchange will be Zelenskyy and Trump’s first direct contact since their fiery exchange in the Oval Office last month.
The Ukrainian was in Washington expecting to sign a critical minerals deal but left early after he and Trump clashed in front of the world’s cameras.
Here’s a video explaining just how those White House talks unravelled…
Andriy Yermak, the head of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, has just shared an update on Ukrainian diplomatic efforts to end the war.
Posting on X, he says work continues on securing a “just and lasting peace”.
We’ve reported this morning on a Russian drone strike that hit a hospital in the northern Sumy region of Ukraine.
Here are the latest images released by the state emergency services of the fire at the hospital and the efforts to put it out.
We’ve heard from the chairman of Ukraine’s foreign affairs committee on the Trump-Putin call.
Oleksandr Merezhko, who is also an MP and a member of Zelenskyy’s party, says the call was a “total disaster” after Putin rejected Trump’s proposal of a full 30-day ceasefire.
“It’s absolutely clear that Putin cannot and doesn’t want to negotiate in earnest,” Merezhko told presenter Wilfred Frost.
“He doesn’t want negotiations. He doesn’t understand the meaning of negotiations or compromise.”
“He can be dealt with only by the use of force, by using sanctions against their energy sector, against the banking sector in Russia, by giving more military aid to Ukraine. This is the only way we can exert pressure and to make him do anything at all.”
He says the ball is now back in Trump’s court and the world will see if he will “deliver on his promise to be tough with those who disagree” with his ceasefire proposal.
‘Ukrainians support Zelenskyy’
Zelenskyy has said he will hold elections in Ukraine once the war is over, being unable to do so last year while the country is under martial law.
He has previously said he would resign his position as president if it meant Ukraine could guarantee membership into NATO.
“President Zelenskyy is a symbol of our resistance,” says Merezhko. “And, of course, Ukrainians, according to the recently held polls, firmly support our president.
“We need to survive. We need to be out of the woods. And only after that we will have democratic, transparent, elections.”
As Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of breaking a 30-day pause on energy attacks, let’s recap what Trump and Putin agreed in their call last night:
Security and defence analyst Michael Clarke takes us through the call in three minutes here:
We’ve just had some more lines from the Kremlin, where spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has been speaking about the relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
The leaders “understand each other well, trust each other and are intent to gradually move towards the normalisation of ties”, Peskov says.
By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent
There’s one key difference about what exactly this ceasefire covers.
The American readout from the White House talks about a ceasefire regarding “energy and infrastructure”, implying that it covers energy facilities and then also infrastructure like ports, bridges and things like that.
But the Kremlin’s readout is different. It just says “energy infrastructure” – there’s no “and” in the middle. That suggests it’s just infrastructure about energy and not ports and bridges.
That’s still unclear. Is it just a something that has been lost in translation, or is it a fundamental difference between what the two sides think they’ve agreed?
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