Still, the two sides carried out an exchange of prisoners, each releasing 175 troops in a deal facilitated by the United Arab Emirates. Moscow said it also freed an additional 22 wounded Ukrainians as a goodwill gesture.
Zelenskyy, describing his conversation with Trump as “positive, very substantive and frank”, said he had confirmed Kyiv’s readiness to halt strikes on Russian infrastructure and to accept an unconditional frontline ceasefire as the US proposed earlier.
“One of the first steps toward fully ending the war could be ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure. I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it,” he said on social media.
Later, the Ukrainian president told reporters in a video call that Trump understands Kyiv will not recognize occupied land as Russian.
Zelenskyy said the Russian strikes, which he said were carried out since Trump’s call with Putin, showed that Russia was not ready for peace. He said the US should be in charge of monitoring any ceasefire, adding a halt to infrastructure attacks could be quickly established.
The Kremlin said it had called off planned attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, including by shooting down seven of Russia’s own drones heading towards Ukraine. It accused Kyiv of failing to call off its own attacks in what it called an attempt to sabotage the agreement.
