Protesters wearing masks of Putin and Trump fight over a Ukrainian flag during a rally in support of Ukraine outside the US Embassy in Kyiv, 15 March 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE / SERGEY DOLZHENKO
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Vladimir Putin of rejecting a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, following a call between the Russian leader and US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, in which Putin agreed to a 30-day halt in energy infrastructure attacks, but stopped short of endorsing Trump’s ceasefire plan.
“Today, Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire,” Zelensky wrote on X, adding: “It would be right for the world to respond by rejecting any attempts by Putin to prolong the war”. Within hours of the call ending, both Moscow and Kyiv launched overnight drone strikes on each other.
Zelensky said on Wednesday that Russia launched around 40 drones at Ukraine, one of which had hit a hospital in the northeastern city of Sumy. “It is these types of nighttime attacks by Russia that destroy our energy sector, our infrastructure, and the normal life of Ukrainians”, Zelensky said. “And the fact that this night is no exception shows that the pressure on Russia must continue for the sake of peace.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Zelensky agreed to pause any Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure after the Kremlin announced that Putin had ordered the Russian military to do the same following his call with Trump.
However, Zelensky stressed that Ukraine would respond if Russia breached the agreement, saying: “It can’t be that Russia will attack our energy sector and we will remain silent.”
Russia launched a total of six missiles and 145 drones at 12 regions of Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Wednesday morning, adding that it had intercepted 72 of the drones and that a further 56 had failed to reach their targets.
Russia’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said that it had downed 57 incoming Ukrainian drones overnight, with the authorities in the southern Krasnodar region confirming that a fire had broken out at a Transneft oil facility as a result of a drone strike.
Following the call between Trump and Putin on Tuesday, the White House said the two leaders had agreed that the “movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire” before moving to “technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace”.
While the Kremlin insisted in a statement that the “key condition” for avoiding “conflict escalation” should be the “cessation of foreign military assistance” — including intelligence sharing — to Ukraine, Trump told Fox News later on Tuesday that there had been no mention of military aid to Kyiv made during the call.
Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff later told Fox that delegations from Russia and the US would meet in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah for a second round of ceasefire talks on Sunday, but he did not specify whether Ukraine would also be at the table.
