Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin agrees to 30-day pause on attacking energy

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For more on how both sides have characterised the call today between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, read our story here.

Here are the most recent updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine:

• US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, spoke for more than two hours in their first publicly known call since a ceasefire proposal was announced in Saudi Arabia.
• Both sides said Russia had agreed to pause attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine for 30 days and that teams would be created to launch talks on a wider ceasefire.
• Russia, however, said that a pause in foreign aid to Ukraine would be a key element to any peace agreement.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said such conditions show Putin is not ready to end the war.
• Zelenskyy pledged to continue fighting in the Russian region of Kursk, despite losses there.
• Russia said it repelled an attempted Ukrainian offensive into its Belgorod region.
• European leaders have hailed the German parliament’s vote to vastly boost defence spending as the region grows wary of Washington’s uncertain commitment to NATO and Europe’s defence.

March 18 is considered the 11-year anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Pro-Russian supporters in Crimea’s largest city, Sevastopol, marked the occasion by waving flags and posters praising Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But the annexation has been widely condemned as illegal, with the United Nations General Assembly issuing a resolution in 2014 recognising Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

The Ukrainian president has told reporters that Russia appears to be preparing for new offensives on the Zaporizhia, Sumy and Kharkiv fronts to assert more pressure on Kyiv in the coming months.

He said Ukraine is currently monitoring a build-up of Russian troops along the Sumy front.

Zelenskyy also said that Ukrainian troops were continuing to fight in Russia’s Kursk region, despite being hammered by a Russian offensive in recent days.

“Ukraine is fulfilling its task in the Kursk region. The Ukrainian military are there and they will be there as long as we need this operation,” he said.

Benjamin Friedman, the policy director for the think tank Defence Priorities, has urged caution as analysts try to predict how Trump will respond to Putin’s demands.

“We don’t want to speak too fast about Trump being totally in Putin’s pocket. He clearly leans that way. And that is cause for some concern,” Friedman said.

“But, on the other hand, I think in the US we’ve erred in the other direction for a long time — being sort of hysterical about Russia — and we let a lot of important things fall apart.”

Friedman said he feels it is important for the US and Russia to maintain relations.

“These are the world’s two nuclear superpowers,” he explained. “ So generally speaking, I think it’s good that Trump wants to talk to Putin and wants to talk to Russia.”

Appearing beside Scholz, Macron weighed in on the continuing negotiations for peace in Ukraine.

“The first steps are put in place, but the objective must remain the same: to have a solid ceasefire, measurable and verifiable,” the French president said after meeting the German chancellor in Berlin.

“Obviously, that is not conceivable without having the Ukrainians at the table.”

He added that Germany’s decision to beef up its defence spending was “good news” for the whole of Europe.

The Russian Ministry of Defence has said Ukrainian forces attempted to enter the border region near Kharkiv but were forced back.

It said the offensive was meant to create a “negative background” to the call between Trump and Putin.

“A total of five attacks were carried out by the enemy during the day,” the ministry said in a post on Telegram, adding that about 200 Ukrainian soldiers were involved.

“No crossing of the state border of the Russian Federation was permitted,” the ministry said.

Ukrainian troops entered Russian territory for the first time in August of last year, as part of an offensive in the Kursk region. However, the remaining forces have been largely pushed back in recent fighting.

The AFP news agency has reported that explosions rang out and air raid sirens sounded over the Ukrainian capital.

Kyiv authorities urged residents of the capital to take cover in shelters, citing the threat of a Russian aerial attack, according to the news agency.

AFP reporters also heard blasts sounding over the city.

What we’re getting from the Americans are broad brush strokes. What needs to be done is to colour in some of the details.

It would appear that they have got an agreement that there will be a ceasefire on infrastructure and also the energy supply.

That’s important because Donald Trump has been talking about how there may be the idea that the Russians will be able to share facilities, including a nuclear power plant, if there is a longer-term deal.

What is not clear is whether Donald Trump has agreed to stop intelligence and military support to the Ukrainians for the 30 days. It’s something that he’s done in the past but has resumed very quickly.

Certainly, there was a halt in intelligence support to the Ukrainians for offensive actions against the Russians rather than defensive action.

The fact is the Ukrainians will be concerned that the Russians will use this period to try to make more land gains, which is why they’re not agreeing to an entire ceasefire – to freezing everything on the ground.

That is a concern for them and something that they had raised with the Americans in the past.

The Russian readout of the call with Trump highlighted that they are going to put together a team that will work on the long-term negotiations with the United States and they’re going to send a negotiating team immediately to the Middle East to continue the discussions between the two sides.

But what the Russians are looking for is guarantees that Ukraine does not use this period to mobilise and rearm. That is certainly a sticking point for Vladimir Putin.

Whether he got that in the call with Trump is unclear at the moment. But the Kremlin has made it very clear that this is a condition for any kind of long-term peace settlement.

All in all, it appears there is some momentum. Whether that will continue in the upcoming negotiations, we’ll have to wait and see.

In his first public comments since the call ended, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Putin agreed to a pause in strikes on Ukraine’s energy 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”.

“Many elements of a Contract for Peace were discussed, including the fact that thousands of soldiers are being killed, and both President Putin and President Zelenskyy would like to see it end,” he said.

“That process is now in full force and effect, and we will, hopefully, for the sake of Humanity, get the job done!”

Outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has praised the pause on attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, but he says a ceasefire must be next.

“The next step must be a complete ceasefire for Ukraine and as quickly as possible. Of course, it is clear that we both agree on this too,” Scholz said at a news conference in Berlin with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Scholz reiterated there can be no decisions on the war made without Ukraine.

As Trump and Putin spoke by phone, Germany’s parliament was voting for a massive boost in defence spending.

The move has underscored the shifting geopolitical dynamics since Trump took office, with European leaders saying the US can no longer be relied upon for defence guarantees.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has weighed in on Germany’s decision to increase its defence spending, calling the move “historic”.

“This sends a powerful message of leadership and commitment to our shared security. It will make a profound difference in NATO’s ability to deter and defend,” he said.

Congratulations to @Bundeskanzler & @_FriedrichMerz on historic agreement in Germany to massively boost defence investment. This sends a powerful message of leadership and commitment to our shared security. It will make a profound difference in NATO’s ability to deter and defend.

— Mark Rutte (@SecGenNATO) March 18, 2025

One of the key sticking points emerging from the talks between Trump and Putin is Russia’s demand that there be a “complete cessation of foreign military aid and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv”.

That condition was communicated through a Kremlin statement, following the two leaders’ call.

But French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to beef up his country’s military and continue France’s backing for Ukraine.

“We will continue to support Ukraine in the face of this war of aggression, because we know from our history what it means to be occupied,” Macron wrote on social media today.

Both Moscow and Washington have confirmed that Putin agreed to a 30-day pause on attacks on energy infrastructure.

Such attacks have been a main feature of Russia’s invasion, with strikes on critical energy infrastructure regularly forcing power cuts across Ukraine, affecting everything from heating and water distribution to sewage and public health.

Russian forces most notably seized Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia, in March 2022.

Ukraine’s gas transmission system is also about 1,000 kilometres [620 miles] long, running from east to west, and deliveries have been affected by the war. Numerous power generation, transmission and distribution facilities have also been destroyed, according to the United Nations.

Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, oil depots and industrial sites have also risen since January. The attacks knocked out up to 10 percent of Russian refining capacity for several weeks in February, when the refineries were hit the hardest, according to an analysis by the Reuters news agency.

Meeting with members of Ukraine’s civil society, Andriy Yermak underscores Ukraine’s nonstarters in the ongoing peace negotiations with Russia.

The meeting in Ukraine took place shortly before Trump had a phone call with Putin to discuss the war. Yermak emphasised Ukraine’s “red lines”, he said in a post on Telegram.

“Ukraine does not discuss neutral status and reducing the size of its armed forces,” he said. “We will never recognise any temporarily occupied territories as Russian.”

The statement came amid reports before the Trump-Putin call that the US president was considering recognising annexed Crimea as Russian territory.

Germany’s decision to raise public investment and ease constitutionally enshrined borrowing rules to allow higher spending on defence is excellent news, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says.

“It sends a very clear message to Europe that Germany is determined to invest massively in defence,” von der Leyen, a former German defence minister, said at a joint news conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen.

Germany’s parliament approved plans for a huge spending surge, throwing off decades of fiscal conservatism in hopes of reviving economic growth and scaling up military spending for a new era of European collective defence.

Germany and other European nations have been under pressure to shore up their defences in the face of Russia’s war in Ukraine and shifts in US policy under Trump.