{"id":130439,"date":"2025-03-18T20:25:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T20:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-putin-agrees-to-stop-energy-strikes-for-30-days-and-trump-talks-ice-hockey-on-historic-call-sky-news\/"},"modified":"2025-03-18T20:25:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T20:25:08","slug":"ukraine-war-latest-putin-agrees-to-stop-energy-strikes-for-30-days-and-trump-talks-ice-hockey-on-historic-call-sky-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-latest-putin-agrees-to-stop-energy-strikes-for-30-days-and-trump-talks-ice-hockey-on-historic-call-sky-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war latest: Putin agrees to stop energy strikes for 30 days – and Trump talks ice hockey on 'historic' call – Sky News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have spoken today for at least 90 minutes. Russia has agreed to a partial ceasefire on targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure as a result, for a period of 30 days. Follow the latest here.
Tuesday 18 March 2025 20:21, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Live reporting by Ollie Cooper<\/a><\/i>
Downing Street has welcomed “the progress President Trump has made towards a ceasefire” following his call with Vladimir Putin.
However, the UK government also insisted negotiations must lead to a “just and lasting peace for Ukraine”.<\/p>\n

A Downing Street spokesperson added: “We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes to ensure Russia can never launch an illegal invasion again.”
A Ukrainian MP claims that Vladimir Putin has effectively thrown Donald Trump a bone by ordering his military to halt strikes on energy infrastructure. 
“He had to agree to something,” Oleksiy Goncharenko said. 
“He chose the most convenient thing for himself, which is energy infrastructure – winter is already over, and he needs to pump and sell oil – that is why he chose this for himself,” he said. 
“Then the Russians will stall for time, resist as much as they can, say whatever they want. 
“And then, under pressure from the Americans, another step, another step, another step. And so it will continue to happen.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has just offered his reaction to the Donald Trump-Vladimir Putin call.
He said firstly that he hopes Trump will fill him in on the detail of the call, but added he supports the proposal to stop strikes on energy infrastructure for 30 days.
He said Ukraine would support any ideas that lead to a stable and just peace, but that an unconditional ceasefire would be a better step forward. 
He did, however, say that future talks about Ukraine without Kyiv at the table will not bring results. 
Addressing the Russian offer to release 23 seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers, he said freeing all<\/i> prisoners would be a real way for Russia to show it is serious about peace talks. 
On Putin’s demand to see all foreign military aid and intelligence sharing halted, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s allies would never agree to such a move and that he hopes supplies would continue. 
Zelenskyy added that that demand was simply Putin attempting to weaken Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader also said his forces had assessed that Russia was preparing new offensives in several regions – namely Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia – in a bid to ramp up pressure on Kyiv. 
Here’s how the frontline currently looks…
(Sumy lies to the north of Ukraine – on the Ukrainian side of the border nearest the Russian Kursk region)<\/i>
It’s 7.30pm in London, 9.30pm in Kyiv, 10.30pm in Moscow and 3.30pm in Washington. 
If you’re just joining us, you’re probably looking for updates on the Donald Trump-Vladimir Putin phone call.
Here’s what you need to know.
The call itself<\/b>
What was agreed<\/b>
By Ivor Bennett<\/a>, Moscow correspondent<\/b>
I think Vladimir Putin will be very satisfied with the outcome of this call because even if he hasn’t gained a whole lot, he crucially hasn’t lost anything.
By agreeing to a ceasefire on energy infrastructure, he has given Donald Trump enough to ensure the wider US-Russia rapprochement remains intact. There’s been talk in the last month of a reset of relations, of the lifting of sanctions – and Vladimir Putin certainly doesn’t want to jeopardise that.
At the same time, though, he didn’t want to dilute any of his red lines. And by the sounds of it, they’re as indelible as ever. 
The Kremlin’s readout of the call talks of a need to “eliminate the root causes of the crisis”, which is Kremlin code for “Russia’s security concerns regarding NATO expansion need to be met”.
One thing this call has given him though is the time to press home Russia’s military advantage. This is particularly important to Putin in Russia’s Kursk region, where his forces are seemingly on the verge of eradicating Ukraine’s foothold, which would be of huge symbolic importance to the Kremlin.
Donald Trump has shared an update on his call with Vladimir Putin today. 
“My phone conversation today with President Putin of Russia was a very good and productive one,” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“We agreed to an immediate ceasefire on all energy and infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a complete ceasefire and, ultimately, an end to this very horrible war between Russia and Ukraine,” he added.
It appears the US president would need to get Ukraine to agree to the 30-day halt to energy infrastructure strikes. 
Trump also repeated claims that the war would have never started if he had been president when it began in 2022. 
“Many elements of a contract for peace were discussed, including the fact that thousands of soldiers are being killed, and both President Putin and President Zelenskyy would like to see it end. 
“That process is now in full force and effect, and we will, hopefully, for the sake of humanity, get the job done!”
Away from the reaction to the Trump-Putin call, new photos today show the continuing destruction faced by Ukrainians.
These images show the aftermath of Russian drone strikes in two different parts of Ukraine. 
The first shows the damage to the AES Group private oil refinery after a shock drone attack yesterday in the Kharkiv region.
The AES Group confirmed the destruction of the facility in Merefa after about 20 drones were launched at it.
This picture, from the outskirts of Kyiv, shows the aftermath of another drone attack that saw debris land near a school.
We’re getting some reaction through from Ukraine now.
Illia Ponomarenko, a prominent journalist, says the call outlines that the Kremlin is simply “dragging things out indefinitely”.  
“The Kremlin is essentially sticking to its optimal strategy – dragging things out indefinitely, saying ‘no’ without actually saying ‘no’, drowning everything in meaningless demagogy,” he says.
He claims Putin is “manipulating Trump” by “massaging his ego, tossing him silly trinkets like imaginary ‘thousands of Ukrainian soldiers lives spared only thanks to Trump’ and hockey games, all while continuing its full-scale war against Ukraine”.
“And as long as Trump keeps indulging in his virtual ‘victories’ and tiptoeing around Putin, they have no reason to stop.”
One detail that may have slipped through the cracks from the call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is that the US leader suggested that a hockey match between Russia and his country could take place. 
“Donald Trump supported Vladimir Putin’s idea to organise hockey matches in the US and Russia between Russian and American players playing in the NHL and KHL.”
Kremlin readout of the call<\/b>
Russia has been banned from most international sports, including the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup and more, since its illegal invasion of Ukraine. 
But Trump seems keen to restore relations with the Kremlin, and this is one step that is arguably more significant that it may seem on paper.
Our US correspondent James Matthews<\/a> <\/b>says: “The hockey match will speak to Trump.
“He likes to talk sport, he likes to sell sport – and Americans, many in this country, care more about ice hockey, frankly, than they do about a war they don’t think affects them.”
“It looks like an air and sea ceasefire,” defence analyst Michael Clarke<\/a><\/b> says, responding to the Kremlin and White House readouts of the Donald Trump-Vladimir Putin call. 
Under the terms of what appears to be a kind of “limited ceasefire”, airstrikes on energy infrastructure will halt, and military action in the Black Sea could cease later. 
Clarke notes it’s not too dissimilar to a plan outlined by Volodymyr Zelenskyy not long ago – a staged deal that begins with a halt to air warfare. 
While that may signal that Trump could be listening to Kyiv, Clarke says the fact that Zelenskyy was not involved in today’s talks speaks volumes.  
“There’s an old saying in diplomatic circles: ‘If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu’,” he says.
“And believe me Ukraine is on the menu.”
Be the first to get Breaking News<\/span>
Install the Sky News app for free<\/p>\n

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