Putin agrees to Trump's proposal to stop strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure for 30 days

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Finland, 16 July 2018, photo: AP/ ablo Martinez Monsivais

Russian President Vladimir Putin has supported US President Donald Trump's proposal to temporarily suspend strikes on energy infrastructure for 30 days and has given the corresponding command to the military.

They reached this agreement during a telephone conversation that lasted 1.5 hours.

The White House also said that the peace talks will also begin with technical discussions on the implementation of a naval truce in the Black Sea. In addition, negotiations on a naval truce will begin in the Middle East in the near future.

On 13 March, Steve Vitkoff arrived in Moscow and held talks with Vladimir Putin. It was reported that Donald Trump's special envoy had to wait eight hours for the meeting, but Donald Trump denied this information, calling its authors «sick degenerates».

Witkoff's visit to Moscow followed a meeting between the Ukrainian delegation and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Volz in Saudi Arabia. There, Kyiv supported the idea of a temporary ceasefire.

On the same day, Vladimir Putin said that Moscow generally agreed with the initiative, but, according to him, there were still issues that needed further discussion.

After the talks in Moscow, Steve Witkoff returned to the United States for consultations with President Donald Trump on the next steps.