The US President Donald Trump posted a post today that was interpreted as if he had a conversation with Putin. The US White House clarified that it was Special Representative for Middle East Affairs Steve Witkoff, not the American leader, who spoke with Putin.
This was reported during a press conference by White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt.
The US Presidentʼs post, in which he praised his discussions with Putin and wrote, "I really asked President Putin," caused confusion. It sounded as if the conversation was between the two of them.
Presumably, this refers to a conversation between Witkoff and Putin during the American officialʼs visit to Moscow on March 13. Russian media, citing Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, reported on their meeting and wrote that Putin passed the information to Trump through Witkoff.
In the post, Trump called the conversation "very good and productive", adding that "there is a very good chance that this terrible, bloody war can finally end".
At the same time, Trump stated that thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are currently completely surrounded by the Russian army and "in a very bad and vulnerable situation".
"I have been urging President Putin to spare their lives. It would be a horrific massacre unlike anything seen since World War II. God bless them all!!!" he wrote.
Presumably, Trump learned from Putin his version of the situation in the Kursk direction. Russian propaganda has been actively writing in recent days about the alleged "complete encirclement" of Ukrainian forces in the region. The Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that there is no threat of encirclement in the Kursk region.
What preceded
On March 11, negotiations between Ukrainian and US delegations took place in Saudi Arabia. As a result, Ukraine agreed to an immediate temporary ceasefire — in exchange, Washington decided to resume aid and intelligence sharing. Trumpʼs national security adviser Mike Waltz said he would discuss the idea of a temporary ceasefire with his Russian counterpart "in the coming days".
Volodymyr Zelensky said that a 30-day ceasefire will apply to the entire front line if Russia agrees to it.
Putin said on March 13 that the ceasefire is “the right idea” that Russia supports, but there are issues that still need to be discussed. He considers it very difficult to monitor violations during the ceasefire along the nearly 2 000 km front line.
And also, according to him, it is unclear what will happen to those who remained in the Kursk region: whether the Ukrainian command will order the fighters to lay down their arms and surrender, or whether the Russian Federation should release them from this zone without a fight.
Putin says that during these 30 days of ceasefire, Ukraine can continue to receive weapons, mobilize, and train mobilized people — the Russian Federation needs guarantees that this will not happen, but it is currently unclear how to control these moments.
Putin thinks that the Russian side should discuss this with the Americans, in particular, by calling Donald Trump. Earlier, after the talks between Ukraine and the United States on March 11, the US president stressed that he hoped for a complete ceasefire in the coming days and that he might talk to Putin this week.
The President of Ukraine reacted to Putinʼs words and said that he was actually preparing a refusal, and everything that was happening was Russian manipulation. The American side spoke of its readiness to organize control and verification of the ceasefire.
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