The phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on Tuesday morning was, by all accounts, the most anticipated live news update in recent memory. Dan Scavino, Trump’s ever-loyal media whisperer, had teased the phone call on X, but when it finally concluded, the grand finale proved underwhelming.
The president—who once boasted that he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours—was confronted with a reality more complex than his campaign rhetoric suggested. Putin, as it turns out, is in no rush to agree to a full ceasefire, even after Ukraine had signaled its willingness to do so at the Saudi-hosted talks.
For two hours, the two men talked. The outcome? A partial ceasefire on Russian and Ukrainian energy infrastructure targets. Trump, as always, declared victory.
“My phone conversation today with President Putin of Russia was a very good and productive one,” he posted on Truth Social.
“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.
The Russian president, however, appears to have been playing a longer game. While Putin agreed to a prisoner swap—175 detainees from each side, plus 23 seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers—the terms of any broader settlement remain firmly in his hands.
The White House may put a more optimistic gloss on events, but it is Putin now who is dictating the pace of the peace talks. His demands, delivered to Trump, were extensive. Russia’s President emphasized that any peace deal would hinge on the US and its allies halting all military and intelligence support for Ukraine.
After all, as Trump himself once put it, Russia holds “all the cards.” Now, Putin is playing them.
Zelenskyy treads carefully
In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy struck a measured tone, noting that further clarity from Washington would be needed before responding to any agreement.
“I think it will be right that we will have a conversation with President Trump and we will know in detail what the Russians offered the Americans or what the Americans offered the Russians,” he said.
“After we get details from the American president, from the American side, we will give our answer, prepare it, and our team will be ready for technical discussions.”
Across the pond, Britain—one of Ukraine’s biggest backers—is watching events with wary optimism. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has spoken with Zelenskyy to discuss what Downing Street described as the “progress President Trump had made towards a ceasefire in talks with Russia.” But not everyone in London is convinced. Boris Johnson, still the loudest cheerleader for Ukraine in British politics, responded with barely concealed sarcasam.
“What a surprise — Putin rejects an unconditional ceasefire,” he wrote on X. “He wants to keep bombing and killing innocent Ukrainians. He wants Ukraine disarmed. He wants Ukraine neutralised. He wants to make Ukraine a vassal state of Russia. He isn’t negotiating. He’s laughing at us.”
Any lingering optimism about the partial ceasefire was swiftly overshadowed by events on the ground. Mere hours after the Trump-Putin call, Russia launched a fresh wave of drone attacks against Ukraine. Slovyansk, once home to 103,000 people, was plunged into darkness.
Trump’s allies will continue to call his conversation with Putin a masterstroke, a triumph of dealmaking. A step toward “Contract for Peace.” But the facts remain: Putin now dictates the terms of peace, and Ukraine is left to take what it can get.
The Kremlin’s readout of the call stated that Trump and Putin “reaffirmed their commitment to continuing efforts toward resolving the Ukraine conflict bilaterally.” The key word—bilaterally, not trilaterally—signals that Ukraine may be sidelined as the two great powers decide its fate between them.
The belief that Trump can pressure Putin into swift compliance is the politics of high expectations, but realpolitik is something else entirely. Russia will act in its own interest, as it always has, and decades of Cold War history suggest that two nuclear powers wield power in fundamentally different ways.
Trump likes to think he has a “good relationship” with Putin. But the Russian leader remains loyal to one cause alone—his own.
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