Donald Trump has expressed confidence that he can broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, but Vladimir Putin has once again shown that he knows he holds ‘the cards’.
Putin was an hour late for his Tuesday call with Trump and seemingly unbothered by the fact that he had kept the American president waiting.
The Russian leader was seen smirking and laughing off warnings about his tardiness as he met with members of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs congress ahead of the call.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two-hour phone call was meant to begin at 9am EST, but when the time rolled around, Putin was still at the conference and appeared in no rush to leave.
White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino posted on X just before noon that Trump’s call with Putin began at 10am and was ‘going well, and still in progress’.
Trump claimed the call went ‘great’ and the White House White House described it as the first step in a ‘movement to peace’, revealing during the call Putin had agreed to an immediate pause in strikes against energy infrastructure in Ukraine.
Moscow said the leaders discussed staging a series of ice hockey games between players from the the NHL and KHL during the lengthy call, claiming Trump supported Putin’s idea to organize games in the US and Russia.
Washington’s report of the call did not mention talks involving hockey, and the NHL learned of the idea after it was over.
Despite the alleged success of the call, both Russia and Kyiv launched air attacks overnight that struck civilian targets including infrastructure. There has also been no indication that Putin has backed away from his conditions for a prospective peace deal – which are fiercely opposed by Kyiv.
Vladimir Putin (pictured) on Tuesday laughed off a warning that he was leaving it late for his phone call to Donald Trump
Putin was an hour late for his Tuesday call with Donald Trump (pictured Tuesday). Trump claimed the call went ‘great’ and the White House White House described it as the first step in a ‘movement to peace’
Damaged private houses at a site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Hostomel, Kyiv on March 19, 2025
Putin, who is notorious for keeping world leaders waiting, seemingly mocked his meeting with Trump before it even started.
Video shared online shows how Alexander Shokhin, leader of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, addressed Putin’s lateness during the conference.
Shokhin looked at his watch saying Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had announced the timing was before 6pm in Moscow. Reports in Russia said the session would be between 4pm and 6pm – and it was already after 4pm.
‘Don’t listen to him! That’s his job,’ replied Putin, showing no sign of wanting to leave.
‘Well, I don’t know. Now we need to see what Trump says about this…..,’ said Shokhin, a former Putin deputy prime minister.
‘I didn’t mention Trump. I was talking about Peskov,’ Putin replied.
Putin’s entourage left the conference venue, the Moscow International House of Music, some 20 minutes drive from the Kremlin, just before 5pm (10am EST).
Trump ahead of the call expressed confidence in his ability to achieve his goal of ending the biggest land war in Europe since World War II.
Fire and smoke engulfed a building after a Russian attack in Krasnopillia, Sumy region, Ukraine on March 19, 2025
Ukrainian Emergency Service firefighters work on a site of a Russian attack in Krasnopillia, Sumy region on March 19, 2025
Despite Putin and Zelensky having agreed to a limited ceasefire to halt attacks on energy infrastructure, both Kyiv and Moscow have now accused each other of launching damaging air attacks early Wednesday. Ukrainian service personnel use searchlights as they look for drones in the sky over Kyiv during a Russian drone strike on Wednesday, March 18, 2025
The Russian SHOT news Telegram posted a video of blazes overnight at what seemed like an industrial area
‘We can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace and I think we’ll be able to do it,’ Trump told reporters on Monday.
And, he added in a post to Truth Social, that ‘many elements of a Final Agreement have been agreed to, but much remains. Thousands of young soldiers, and others, are being killed. Each week brings 2,500 soldier deaths, from both sides, and it must end NOW.’
In his dealings with Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky and Putin, Trump has frequently focused on who has the leverage.
Putin has ‘the cards’ and Zelensky does not, Trump has said repeatedly.
Trump, who has long shown admiration for Putin, has also made clear he’d like to see the US-Russia relationship return to a more normal footing.
In their call on Tuesday, Putin declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire sought by Trump and previously accepted by Ukraine.
The Russian leader said he would agree to a limited pause in attacks on energy infrastructure, which was then accepted by Zelensky.
Putin also told Trump that Russia and Ukraine are set to exchange 175 prisoners of war each on Wednesday – and Russia will also hand over to Ukraine 23 badly wounded soldiers, the Kremlin said.
Regional authorities in Sumy, northeast Ukraine said that Russia’s drone attacks damaged two hospitals there, causing no injuries but forcing the evacuation of patients and hospital staff. Pictured is a Ukrainian hospital that was struck in Russia’s overnight attack
A rescuer works at a hospital in the aftermath of a Russian drone strike in Sumy, Ukraine
Trump immediately cheered Tuesday’s development in a post on his Truth Social platform.
‘We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and 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,’ Trump wrote.
But the agreed ceasefire has yet to come, with both Russia and Ukraine having now accused each other of launching damaging air attacks – just hours after Putin Trump he would pause attacks on Ukraine’s energy system.
After Russia launched its air attacks early on Wednesday, Zelensky urged the world to block any attempts by Moscow to drag out the war.
‘Russia is attacking civilian infrastructure and people – right now,’ Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, said overnight on Telegram.
Germany’s defence minister said Putin’s agreement to temporarily stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities counted for ‘nothing’, and Trump would have to win greater concessions.
‘Attacks on civilian infrastructure in the first night after this supposedly pivotal and great phone call have not abated,’ Boris Pistorius told German broadcaster ZDF. ‘Putin is playing a game here and I’m sure that the American president won’t be able to sit and watch for much longer.’
Rescuers evacuate a woman in the aftermath of a Russian drone strike at a hospital in Sumy, Ukraine on March 19, 2025
Ukrainian regional authorities said homes had been hit in the northeastern Sumy region and the region surrounding the capital, and attacks had hit the power system supplying the railways in the south.
Russian authorities said an oil terminal was hit in southern Russia causing a fire.
In Sumy, regional authorities said Russian drone attacks also damaged two hospitals, causing no injuries but forcing the evacuation of patients and hospital staff.
In Kyiv region, authorities said a 60-year-old man was injured. Most of the damage near the capital was in the Bucha district, where police said air strikes destroyed or damaged 18 private houses, 20 flats, 19 vehicles, two shops and a cafe.
Ukraine also reported Russian strikes on the city of Sloviansk near the front line around the time of the phone call on Tuesday, which left part of the city without power.
Zelensky said that Russia launched more than 40 drones against Ukraine in the hours following the call between Trump and Putin. The Ukrainian military said Russia launched 145 drones. Air defences shot down 72 of them and 56 were lost.
‘The Russian attack affected Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Chernihiv regions,’ the military said on Telegram.
SHOT said the Kavkazskaya oil transshipment point is an important facility designed to transport Russian oil for exports railway and into the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline system
In this photo distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, a Russian ‘Grad’ self-propelled multiple rocket launcher fires towards Ukrainian positions in Ukraine
An explosion of a drone is seen in the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine early Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Russia’s defence ministry said that its units destroyed 57 Ukrainian drones overnight, 35 of them over the border Kursk region. The ministry reports only how many drones were destroyed, not how many were launched by Ukraine.
Authorities in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar said early on Wednesday that a Ukrainian drone attack sparked a small fire at an oil depot located near the village of Kavkazskaya.
No one was injured in the fire, which spread across 20 square metres (215 square feet), but 30 employees were evacuated and work had been suspended, the administration of the southern Russian region said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
The Russian SHOT news Telegram posted a video of blazes at night at an industrial area, describing it as an important facility for transporting oil exports by rail and pipeline. Reuters could not independently verify the SHOT report.
Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said that for a couple of hours overnight flights were suspended from airports in Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Nizhnekamsk, all hundreds kilometers east of Moscow, to ‘ensure air safety’.
Trump has made quickly ending the Russia-Ukraine war a top priority – even at the expense of straining ties with longtime American allies who want Putin to pay a price for the invasion.
The US president has at moments boasted of his relationship with Putin and blamed Ukraine for Russia’s unprovoked invasion, all while accusing Zelensky of unnecessarily prolonging the war.
Men clear rubble near damaged private houses at a site of a Russian drone strike in the town of Hostomel, Kyiv region, Ukraine on March 19, 2025
Firefighters work at the site of a Russian attack in Krasnopillia, Sumy region on Wednesday
Damaged private houses and car at a site of a Russian drone strike in Hostomel, Kyiv on March 19, 2025
Trump previously claimed that Washington and Moscow have already begun discussing ‘dividing up certain assets’ between Ukraine and Russia as part of a deal to end the conflict.
He said before the call that control of land and power plants would be part of the conversation, which came on the anniversary of Russia annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula 11 years ago. That bold land grab by Russia set the stage for Russia to invade its neighbor in 2022.
But neither the White House nor Kremlin made any mention of land or power plants in their post-call statements.
White House special envoy Steve Witkoff on Sunday suggested that US and Russian officials have discussed the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest – in southern Ukraine.
Russian troops seized the plant early in the war and it has been caught in the crossfire, fueling fears of a potential nuclear catastrophe.
The plant is a significant asset, producing nearly a quarter of Ukraine’s electricity in the year before the war.
After a disastrous Feb. 28 White House meeting with Zelensky, Trump temporarily cut off some military intelligence-sharing and aid to Ukraine. It was restored after the Ukrainians last week signed off on the Trump administration’s 30-day ceasefire proposal.
The president during his recent contentious meeting with Zelensky grumbled that ‘Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,’ a reference to the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in which he beat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
After a disastrous Feb. 28 White House meeting with Zelensky, (pictured) Trump temporarily cut off some military intelligence-sharing and aid to Ukraine. It was restored after the Ukrainians last week signed off on the Trump administration’s 30-day ceasefire proposal
A destroyed building following a Russian strike in the Bucha district of Kyiv region on Wednesday, March 19, 2025
The wreckage of a car following a Russian strike in the Bucha, Kyiv on March 19, 2025
Trump on Tuesday again underscored his view that Ukraine is not in a strong negotiating position. He said Russian forces have surrounded Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region – amplifying an assertion made by Russian officials that’s been disputed by Zelensky.
‘They are nicely encircled, and that’s not good,’ said Trump, according to excerpts of an interview on Fox News Channel’s Ingraham Angle. ‘And we want to get it over with.’
Ukraine’s army stunned Russia in August last year by attacking across the border and taking control of an estimated 500 square miles of land. But Ukraine’s forces are now in retreat and it has all but lost a valuable bargaining chip, as momentum builds for a ceasefire with Russia.
The White House said Trump and Putin also discussed the situation in the Middle East and agreed ‘Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.’
US officials have previously said that Iran has provided Russia with short-range ballistic missiles and attack drones for the war in Ukraine. The US has also said that Iran has assisted Russia with building a drone-manufacturing factory.
The Kremlin said that Trump expressed support for an idea floated by Putin to organize hockey matches in the US and Russia between Russian and American players from the National Hockey League – which has US and Canadian teams – and the Kontinental Hockey League, which includes teams from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and China.
‘We have just become aware of the conversation between President Trump and President Putin,’ the NHL said in a statement after the call.
‘Obviously, we were not a party to those discussions, and it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time.’
President Donald Trump, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019
Putin’s love of hockey as his favorite sport is widely known. He attended the Russia-US preliminary round game at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, famously won in a shootout by American T.J. Oshie.
The countries’ rivalry on the ice dates to the 1980 ‘Miracle on Ice’ when an underdog group of US amateurs beat the heavily favored Soviet Union in the medal round on the way to capturing Olympic gold in Lake Placid, New York.
The Russians, playing as the Olympic Athletes from Russia because of previous doping violations, won men’s hockey gold at the Games in 2018 when the NHL did not participate for the first time since 1994.
Russia has been banned by the International Ice Hockey Federation for all tournaments the organization runs since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.