{"id":305385,"date":"2025-03-19T13:20:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T13:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=305385"},"modified":"2025-03-21T08:18:55","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T08:18:55","slug":"putin-rejects-trumps-ceasefire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=305385","title":{"rendered":"Putin rejects Trump\u2019s ceasefire"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Crisp \u2013 The Telegraph March 19, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Vladimir Putin rejected Donald Trump\u2019s proposal for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine after a \u201cfrank\u201d phone call<\/a> on Tuesday between the two presidents.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Russian leader agreed to a 30-day pause in attacks on energy plants and infrastructure and to hold further talks on stopping hostilities in the Black Sea.<\/p>\n

Putin also demanded that Ukraine not rearm or mobilise<\/a> during the partial truce and called for a \u201ccomplete cessation\u201d of Western military and intelligence support to Kyiv.<\/p>\n

France and Germany vowed on Tuesday night to continue supplying weapons to Kyiv, raising doubts over whether a deal on Putin\u2019s terms can hold. Downing Street has not yet addressed whether Britain will follow suit.<\/p>\n

Ukraine reported Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure just hours after the Russian leader agreed to a partial ceasefire in the call with Mr Trump.<\/p>\n

Regional authorities in Sumy in north east Ukraine said that Russia\u2019s drone attacks damaged two hospitals there, forcing the evacuation of patients and hospital staff.<\/p>\n

A 60-year-old man was injured and several houses damaged in a Russian drone attack on the Kyiv region that surrounds the Ukrainian capital, Mykola Kalashnyk, governor of the region, said early on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Boris Pistorius, Germany\u2019s defence minister, said attacks on civilian infrastructure had \u201cnot eased at all in the first night after this supposedly ground-breaking, great phone call\u201d.<\/p>\n

Volodymyr Zelensky said that the phone call showed the Kremlin was \u201cnot ready\u201d to end the war and that its ultimate aim in talks on halting the conflict was to \u201cweaken\u201d his country.<\/p>\n

He said he would discuss the offer of a partial truce with US negotiators<\/a>. \u201cAfter we get the details from the US president, from the US side, we will give our answer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The 90-minute phone call came as Europe ramped up plans for a major re-armament. Germany passed what has been dubbed a \u201cfiscal bazooka\u201d to increase defence spending, while France announced it would deploy nuclear-armed fighter jets to its eastern border.<\/p>\n

Before the call with Mr Trump<\/a>, the Russian president had said at a conference in Russia that Western dominance was \u201cslipping away\u201d. Putin kept his US counterpart waiting for an hour while he criticised the \u201csmall\u201d G7 at the Moscow event.<\/p>\n

The phone call was held after Washington and Kyiv agreed on a proposal for a 30-day ceasefire that would cover all long-range missile attacks.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump had warned Putin he could face sanctions if he did not agree to the plan backed by Ukraine in Jeddah under huge pressure from the White House.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Mr Trump sought to put a positive spin on the talks. \u201cMy phone conversation today with President Putin of Russia was a very good and productive one,\u201d he said on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis war would have never started if I were president!\u201d<\/p>\n

Russia and Ukraine will exchange 175 prisoners of war on Wednesday, under the agreement. Twenty-three seriously injured Ukrainian soldiers being treated in Russia will be transferred.<\/p>\n

Talks aimed at advancing toward a broader peace plan would begin immediately, the White House said.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin said: \u201cDonald Trump proposed that parties to the conflict should mutually refrain from strikes on energy infrastructure facilities for 30 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cVladimir Putin responded positively to this initiative and immediately gave the Russian military the corresponding order.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kremlin also said Putin had offered a hockey match between America and Russia.<\/p>\n

European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> and Mr Zelensky, have warned that Putin is dragging out discussions as fighting continues.<\/p>\n

Russian forces are advancing in Ukraine\u2019s east and pushing back Ukrainian troops from Russia\u2019s Kursk region.<\/p>\n

A limited ceasefire on energy infrastructure risks hurting Kyiv more than Moscow because it robs Ukraine of one of its few advantages in the war: long-range drone attacks.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has handicapped Russian energy production and dented its economy with regular strikes on oil refineries as far as 1,000km from the border.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Ukrainian drones attacked a fuel and energy facility in Russia\u2019s Astrakhan Oblast, a city near the border with Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

But Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have also caused long blackouts in the freezing winters since the invasion three years ago.<\/p>\n

Glen Grant, a former UK defence attach\u00e9 to the Baltics, and one-time adviser to Ukraine\u2019s defence ministry, said: \u201cRussia needed a stop on attacks on energy infrastructure, as Kyiv was doing more damage to Russia through that than the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cLikewise, Russia hasn\u2019t put any ships into the Black Sea for about a year because Ukraine\u2019s naval drones have been messing them up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prisoner exchange had likely been in the pipeline anyway, he added.<\/p>\n

Before the highly anticipated call, some reports suggested the US president might cave in to Russian demands to end Washington\u2019s intelligence, aid and military support to Ukraine to secure the fast ceasefire he craves.<\/p>\n

That would force Europe to try to fill the gap, which sources admit it was not yet able to do.<\/p>\n

European diplomats, who are appalled at Ukraine\u2019s exclusion from the peace talks, told The Telegraph the phone call \u201ccould have been worse\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Macron gave a speech at the Luxeuil-les-Bains air base close to the German border<\/p><\/div>\n

In Berlin, Emmanuel Macron, of France, and Olaf Scholz, of Germany, told Mr Zelensky he could count on their support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both agree that Ukraine can count on us, that Ukraine can count on Europe and that we will not let (Kyiv) down,\u201d said the German chancellor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to support the Ukrainian army in its war of resistance against Russian aggression,\u201d Mr Macron said after the two leaders met ahead of an EU summit on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Mr Macron and Sir Keir are leading calls to form a coalition of willing nations, backed by US security guarantees, to police an eventual peace in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Those plans were dealt a blow by Giorgia Meloni<\/a>, Italy\u2019s Prime Minister, on Tuesday, who has sought to make herself a bridge between Mr Trump and the EU. She said the plans for a European peacekeeping force were \u201crisky, complex and ineffective\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Berlin, Mr Macron said, \u201cthe objective must remain the same \u2013 to have a measurable and verifiable ceasefire, fully respected… a solid and lasting peace and the guarantees that go with it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously this is not conceivable without the Ukrainians being at the table,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Before travelling to Germany, Mr Macron gave a speech at the Luxeuil-les-Bains air base close to the German border.<\/p>\n

He said nuclear-armed fighter jets would be sent to an air base near the German border by 2035 with the site becoming \u201cthe first base to receive the next version of the Rafale [jet] and its hypersonic nuclear missile\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Macron also met with Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor-in-waiting who defeated Mr Scholz in elections in February.<\/p>\n

Mr Merz earlier secured a historic debt package, which relaxes strict German rules on public spending to free up over a trillion euros to revamp the country\u2019s run-down military and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

After Mr Merz, a fiscal conservative, secured backing for the largest debt package in the modern country\u2019s history, he declared it was \u201cthe first major step towards a new European defence community\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister discussed the ceasefire talks in a phone call with Mr Zelensky on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: \u201cThe Prime Minister spoke to President Zelensky this evening. They discussed progress President Trump had made towards a ceasefire in talks with Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Zelensky updated on the situation on the front line and the Prime Minister reiterated the UK\u2019s unwavering support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In fact, the Russian leader agreed to a 30-day pause in attacks on energy plants and infrastructure and to hold further talks, on condition that there was a \u201ccomplete cessation\u201d of Western military and intelligence support to Ukraine. However, France and Germany have both vowed to continue supplying weapons to Kiev, raising doubts over whether the deal will hold<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":300703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,91,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-russia","category-ukraine"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=305385"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305390,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305385\/revisions\/305390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/300703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=305385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=305385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=305385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}