President Trump and President Zelensky announce results of bilateral phone call

On March 19, local time, US President Donald Trump said he had just completed a "very good" phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the two sides discussed issues raised in the call between Mr. Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin the previous day (March 18).

This conversation between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump will mark their first contact since a tense exchange on February 28 in the Oval Office of the White House.

According to the Ukrainian state news agency (Ukrinform) on the evening of March 19, the above information was posted by the US leader on the social network Truth Social on the same day.

“Just finished a very good phone call with President Zelensky of Ukraine. The call lasted about an hour,” Trump said, stressing that much of the conversation revolved around issues discussed in his March 18 phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The US leader added that the discussions were aimed at “aligning the demands and needs of both the Russian Federation and Ukraine” and that “we are moving in the right direction.”

Mr. Trump also said he would ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz to provide an accurate summary of the contents discussed and “this statement will be released shortly.”

For its part, The Kyiv Independent newspaper on the evening of March 19 quoted a statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that he had agreed to stop attacking the energy infrastructure of the Russian Federation in a call with his US counterpart Donald Trump that took place the same day.

“One of the first steps to a complete end to the war could be to stop attacks on energy infrastructure and other civilian facilities. I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to take it,” Zelensky wrote on social network X (formerly Twitter) after an hour-long call with Trump.

The phone call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky took place a day after the US President had a conversation with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

After the call, the Russian leader announced that he had agreed to pause attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days.

However, according to The Kyiv Independent, on the night of March 19, Russian forces conducted a large-scale drone attack on energy infrastructure and other targets in Ukraine.

The Russian Federation did not immediately comment.

Since 2022, Russian forces have been bombing Ukraine's civilian energy infrastructure and have recently expanded their air campaign, with Shahed drone strikes occurring almost nightly, The Kyiv Independent added.

In response, Ukraine has also conducted frequent drone attacks on Russian territory. On the night of March 10, more than 330 Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian capital Moscow. Other attacks have targeted Russia’s fossil fuel infrastructure.