Donald Trump has warned of the possibility of ‘World War III’ after failing to secure a ceasefire in his call with Vladimir Putin. In a call on Tuesday, the Russian leader agreed to a limited ceasefire on Ukrainian energy and infrastructure targets – but the agreement fell far short of the total 30-day truce proposed by the US.
The White House readout of the call between Trump and Putin said “the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire”, though the Kremlin’s statement following the talks spoke only of an agreement on “energy infrastructure”. Within hours, Moscow had resumed its barrage on Ukraine, directly striking the very same energy infrastructure it had promised to spare, as well as two hospitals.
In his first interview since the discussion, Trump said he had a “great call” with Putin that lasted “two hours”- but warned that American troops could become involved if the war escalated into a global conflict. He told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham: “There are no Americans involved, there could be if we end up in World War III over this, which is ridiculous, but strange things happen. We had a great call, it lasted over two hours, talking about a lot of things – towards getting it to peace, we talked about other things also.”
Asked about whether his Russian counterpart had demanded a complete halt on all aid to Ukraine – understood to be one of Russia’s ‘red lines’ for any truce – Trump claimed the two of them had not discussed the subject. He said: “No, we didn’t talk about aid at all. We talked about a lot of things, but aid was never discussed.” Trump also said he wanted to get the situation in Kursk “over with”, where Russian troops currently encircle Ukrainian forces and are demanding they surrender or lose their lives.
It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he plans to speak with Trump today to hear more about his call with Putin. At a news conference in Helsinki with Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Zelensky said: “Today I will have contact with President Trump. We will discuss the details of the next steps with him.”
Zelensky also said Putin’s agreement to stop striking energy infrastructure appeared “very much at odds with reality” after the drone strikes across the country overnight – and stated that that one of the most difficult issues in future negotiations would come over what happens to occupied territory. He said: “For us, the red line is the recognition of the Ukrainian temporarily occupied territories as Russian. We will not go for it.”
It comes after Trump was left red-faced as Putin kept him waiting for an hour before accepting his call. The Russian president appeared to take a page directly of Trump’s “Art of the Deal” in an attempt to exert power over his western rival when the two were scheduled to call one another.
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Russian state news agency Tass reported Putin was participating in an event with the Russian Union of Industrialists Entrepreneurs, which he didn’t leave until around 1.52pm UK time. The call with Trump, however, was meant to take place nearly an hour earlier – between 1pm and 2pm. The White House confirmed in a statement that the call wasn’t taken until 2pm, meaning the US Commander-in-Chief was kept waiting for an hour.
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