Zelensky to speak with Trump following US leader’s ceasefire talks with Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he plans to speak with US President Donald Trump on Wednesday to hear more about his call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

At a news conference in Helsinki with Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Mr Zelensky said: “Today I will have contact with President Trump.

“We will discuss the details of the next steps with him.”

Mr Zelensky said Mr Putin’s agreement to stop striking energy infrastructure were “very much at odds with reality” following a series of drone attacks across the country.

The Ukrainian leader said that one of the most difficult issues in future negotiations would be the issue of territorial concessions.

“For us, the red line is the recognition of the Ukrainian temporarily occupied territories as Russian,” he said.

“We will not go for it.”

Earlier, Russia launched a series of drone strikes that struck civilian areas and damaged a hospital in Ukraine, after Mr Putin refused to back a full 30-day ceasefire during discussions with his American counterpart.

Mr Zelensky said that the attacks continued to strike Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, despite Mr Putin’s agreement to immediately cease attacks on the power grid.

The Ukrainian leader said Moscow’s refusal to halt all strikes proved the need for increased pressure on Moscow to prevent Mr Putin from prolonging the war.

“This confirms that we must continue to pressure Russia for the sake of peace,” he said on Tuesday night.

“Only a real halt to Russia’s attacks on civilian infrastructure can signal a genuine desire to end this war and bring peace closer.”

The White House described the call between Mr Trump and Mr Putin as the first step in a “movement to peace” that it hopes will include a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea and eventually a full and lasting end to the fighting.

But there was no indication that Mr Putin backed away from his conditions for a prospective peace deal, which are fiercely opposed by Kyiv.

Shortly after the two leaders wrapped up their lengthy phone call, air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv, followed by explosions as residents took shelter.

Despite efforts to repel the attack, several strikes hit civilian infrastructure, including a direct drone strike on a hospital in Sumy and attacks on cities in Donetsk region. Russian drones were also reported over Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy regions.

The Russian defence ministry reported on Wednesday that its air defences intercepted 57 Ukrainian drones over the Azov Sea and several Russian regions – the border provinces of Kursk and Bryansk and the nearby regions of Oryol and Tula.

Separately, authorities in the Krasnodar region bordering the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, reported that a drone attack there started a fire at an oil depot.