Trump, Putin hold telephonic conversation: US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin engaged in a two-hour-long telephonic conversation on Tuesday (March 18). Both leaders discussed the Ukraine conflict, as Putin extended gratitude to Trump for his efforts to "achieve the noble goal of ending the hostilities and loss of life."
Putin urged Trump that a "complete cessation of providing Kyiv with foreign military aid and intelligence must become the key condition for preventing an escalation of the conflict" between Kyiv and Moscow.
Trump put forward a proposal for both Russia and Ukraine to "mutually refrain from strikes on energy, infrastructure" for 30 days. Putin responded positively, as he immediately passed the relevant order to the Russian troops.
In his post on Truth Social, Trump said, "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."
In his conversation with the US leader, Putin also assured that the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine would live and be treated fairly in accordance with Russian legislation and international law in the event of surrender. This comes after Trump urged his Russian counterpart to spare the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.
Putin also told Trump that Russia and Ukraine are set to exchange 175 prisoners of war each on Wednesday, and Russia will also hand over to Ukraine 23 badly wounded soldiers, the Kremlin said.
However, the Kremlin alleged Ukraine of "barbaric acts of terrorism committed against civilians residing in the Kursk Region."
Putin also expressed his willingness to work with the United States to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict to reach a settlement that would be "comprehensive, reliable, and lasting, and, naturally, take into account the essential need to eliminate the root causes of the crisis, as well as Russia's legitimate security interests."
The Russian side highlighted what it called "serious risks" regarding the "intractability of the Kiev regime". Moscow claimed that the Ukrainian leadership had "repeatedly sabotaged and violated negotiated agreements.