Trump and Putin are already on the phone, according to the White House.

Moscow / WashingtonLong call between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The White House has confirmed that both leaders are already on the phone to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine. The call, according to Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff at the White House, began at 10 a.m. (local time) and lasted more than an hour. "The call is going well and is still ongoing," he said in a post on X just after 11 a.m.

The deputy chief of staff's assessment coincides with the message that the Trump administration has been sending regarding its relationship with the Kremlin, despite Moscow having already made its reservations about the draft presented to Washington. Yesterday, after the call between the two leaders was announced, the US news website Traffic light Trump was considering recognizing the Crimea region as Russian territory in order to reach a peace agreement.

Putin, faced Tuesday's call with Trump, reinforced by the positive signals that the United States has been sending after making public the proposal for a 30-day ceasefire shared with Ukraine. Although Putin made his support conditional on meeting his demands., the White House's reaction has not been to increase pressure on Russia. On the contrary, optimism about reaching a pact soon continued, and there was a willingness to consider the Kremlin's requests.

Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov had ruled out the possibility of the two presidents addressing substantive issues and sought to limit the scope of the call for the "normalization" of relations between Russia and the United States. However, US media have reported that Trump is considering giving in to several of Putin's demands in exchange for agreeing to the truce proposed by Washington. For example, the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, coinciding with the eleventh anniversary of Moscow's annexation of this Ukrainian territory. According to Traffic light, the White House has even suggested that the United Nations take the same step, which would constitute a historic change of position and an insult to Ukraine.

Another issue looming over the call between the two presidents is the discussion about control of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe and which is under Russian control. Last week, Trump placed the division of certain assets in the occupied Ukrainian territories, including power plants, as one of the critical elements of the talks. In recent hours, Russia has intensified its attacks on the Zaporizhia region.

And yet another element of discussion that worries Ukraine is the access to the Black Sea: according to the New York TimesTrump is also reportedly willing to hand over the port of Odessa to Russia. This strategic infrastructure, which has been under Ukrainian control throughout the war, is critical to Kiev's economic development and its future viability as a state. In addition, Bloomberg He points out that the Kremlin leader will demand a halt to arms supplies to Ukraine if the fighting stops.

Although, given the White House's moves, the outlook is good for the Kremlin, the Russian media remains deeply skeptical about the advisability of a ceasefire. They interpret the red lines expressed by the Ukrainian government (territorial integrity, membership in international organizations such as NATO, and defense capability) as a sign of Volodymyr Zelensky's intransigence, which makes a truce unnecessary.