Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a “very good telephone call” on Wednesday, according to Trump, in the first conversation between the US president and his Ukrainian counterpart since their disastrous showdown in the White House three weeks ago.
Zelenskyy described the call as “positive, very substantive and frank”, and said he had signed up to a partial ceasefire that Trump agreed with Vladimir Putin a day earlier. The White House said Trump had promised to help with a Ukrainian request to source more air defence batteries for Kyiv.
The last encounter between Trump and Zelenskyy ended in an angry exchange of words between the two presidents and vice president JD Vance. It marked a low point in US-Ukrainian relations, and spooked other allies that Washington may be about to abandon Kyiv.
Since then, Zelenskyy has been eager to get relations with Trump back on track. His readout of Wednesday’s call thanked Trump multiple times, and he said he had signed on to the ceasefire plan.
“We instructed our teams to resolve technical issues related to implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram after the call.
Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, has posted on social media that he is “encouraged” by the phone call held earlier in the day between Zelenskyy and Trump.
Positive conversation with President @ZelenskyyUA. I am encouraged by his substantive phone call with @POTUS Donald Trump.
— António Costa (@eucopresident) March 19, 2025
Halting strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure would be an important and first real step towards ending the war.
We will continue our…
“Positive conversation with President Zelenskiy. I am encouraged by his substantive phone call with @POTUS Donald Trump,” Costa wrote on X.
“Halting strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure would be an important and first real step towards ending the war. We will continue our discussions with President Zelenskiy tomorrow at the European Council,” he added.
