Donald Trump has told Volodymyr Zelensky that the United States could own and run Ukraine’s nuclear power plants as part of his latest bid to secure a ceasefire in Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.
The offer comes as some 30 military chiefs from countries keen to help protect an eventual ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine prepared for talks in Britain on Thursday to discuss plans for a peacekeeping force.
Following the Wednesday call with Trump, Ukrainian President Zelensky said that Kyiv was “ready” to pause attacks on Russia’s energy network and infrastructure, a day after Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed to halt similar strikes on Ukraine.
Zelensky also said he had discussed Trump’s power plant takeover plan.
“We talked only about one power plant, which is under Russian occupation,” Zelensky, who was on an official visit to Finland, said during an online briefing, referring to the plant in Zaporizhzhia.
He added that he had “not felt any pressure” from Trump to make concessions to Russia.
But a wider ceasefire remains elusive, with the Kremlin leader insisting in his own call with Trump on Tuesday that the West first stop all military aid for Ukraine.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and France’s President Emmanuel Macron have said they are willing to deploy British and French troops in Ukraine.
The UK government says a “significant number” of nations are prepared to do the same, but it is not clear exactly how many countries are keen.
Trump’s tone on Wednesday was markedly more positive after the Zelensky call, with the White House describing it as “fantastic” — despite the fact that the two men had a blazing televised row in the Oval Office recently.
In a joint statement, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump “discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants” and said Washington could be “very helpful” in running them.
“American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure,” it said.
Ending The War
Trump also pledged to help Kyiv get more air defense equipment from Europe and to find Ukrainian children “abducted” by Russia, the statement said.
The US president earlier said on his Truth Social network that efforts to reach a full truce were “very much on track.”
Zelensky said Ukrainian and US officials could meet in the coming days for fresh talks in Saudi Arabia, where Russian and American teams are also due to meet early next week.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged 372 prisoners, Moscow said Wednesday, which was planned as a goodwill gesture following the Trump-Putin call.
Kyiv and Moscow, however, have accused each other of continuing attacks.
Russia said it destroyed 132 Ukrainian drones in overnight attacks in several regions throughout the country.
Ukrainian emergency services said on Thursday that an overnight Russian drone attack struck residential buildings in Kropyvnytsky in central Ukraine, wounding eight people, including a child.
Don’t Believe Putin
The major sticking point remains Putin’s resistance to a full ceasefire, which Kyiv and some Western allies say underscores how the Russian leader cannot be trusted.
Putin insisted during his call with Trump on Tuesday that a full ceasefire was only possible if the West agreed to Moscow’s long-standing demand to halt its billions of dollars in military aid for Ukraine.
The Kremlin chief also demanded Ukraine must not be allowed to re-arm and must halt mandatory mobilization.
Moscow and Washington were even at odds on the results of the call.
The Kremlin said they only discussed halting power plant attacks, but the White House insisted the talks covered both energy and other civilian infrastructure.
Trump’s overtures to Putin and indications that Washington will no longer guarantee European security have also spooked Kyiv and the United States’s NATO allies.
“I don’t believe Putin at all, not a single word. He only understands force,” said Kyiv resident Lev Sholoudko, 32.
In Moscow, locals were more optimistic that the talks could end the fighting—to Russia’s advantage.
“Definitely, this is in our favor,” said Moscow resident Larisa, 46.
“There is no other way. What happened in 1945 will happen now,” she added, referring to the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.
Trump Vows Peace
Donald Trump began his second term vowing to be a peacemaker.
Two months in, Israel has launched a major new offensive in Gaza, US forces are pounding Yemen, and Ukraine and Russia are exchanging fire despite his mediation.
Speaking as he was sworn in on January 20, Trump said: “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.”
He pointed to a just-concluded deal, conceived by outgoing president Joe Biden but pushed through by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, that halted Israel’s military operations in Gaza in return for the release of some hostages by Hamas, which attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
In recent days, Israel has relaunched air strikes, killing hundreds of people, according to the Gaza health ministry, and renewed its ground operations.
The State Department said Hamas bore “total responsibility” after rejecting a proposal by Witkoff, a Trump friend also mediating with Russia, to move toward a second phase of the Gaza ceasefire.
Trump has also ordered military strikes on Yemen’s Huthi insurgents after the Iranian-backed forces reopened attacks on Red Sea shipping in professed solidarity with the Palestinians.
Brian Finucane, a former State Department official now at the International Crisis Group, which promotes conflict resolution, said that the narrative of Trump as a peacemaker was always overstated and that his approach was erratic.
Trump likes to claim wins and would relish earning the Nobel Peace Prize, Finucane said, seeing it as “one of life’s great achievements. “
“He was happy to claim credit for the Gaza ceasefire in January but then unwilling to put pressure on the Israelis to move to phase two,” Finucane said.
Another Trump envoy held the first-ever direct US talks with Hamas, unthinkable for previous administrations, but Trump also has called for the mass removal of Gaza’s two million people.
“None of this is terribly coherent, but neither is it terribly surprising,” Finucane said.
He pointed to Trump’s first term, in which he threatened to annihilate North Korea before holding unprecedented summits with leader Kim Jong Un and saying that they “fell in love.”
Trump’s aides have described his bellicose posture as part of a strategy for achieving peace.
“He’s been abundantly clear. He’s a president that wants to promote peace,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a radio interview Wednesday.
Trump, who had boasted that he would end the Ukraine war within a day, held successive calls this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and voiced optimism about reaching a truce.
But Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, launched a barrage of missile and drone attacks hours after the Trump call.
Jennifer Kavanaugh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, which supports restraint, said there was reason for optimism from Trump’s Ukraine diplomacy but that Putin has the upper hand on the ground and is not going to compromise easily.
She said that Trump also did not appear to offer any concessions to Putin, despite outside criticism of his ties with the Russian leader and Trump’s earlier berating of Zelensky that alarmed European allies.
“To me, this was a positive step forward that set the ground for some confidence building, both between Ukraine and Russia and between Trump and European allies who are very concerned about his negotiating style,” she said.
Hard Realities
She said it was not yet “time to give up hope for peace” from Trump.
“I think what we’ve seen is that promises run into the hard realities of how difficult it is to get to peace in these very difficult and intractable conflicts,” she said.
Sina Toossi, a fellow at the progressive Center for International Policy, was less hopeful.
Toossi said that compared with his first term, Trump’s aides, such as Rubio, are “more loyalists than independent power players,” giving the president freer rein, including for brinksmanship.
“For Trump, foreign policy isn’t about carefully negotiated peace deals. It’s about performance, leverage, and crafting a narrative that sells,” he said.
Referring to Trump’s book as a hotel developer, Toossi said: “He approaches diplomacy the way he approached real estate in ‘The Art of the Deal:’ — escalate tensions, maximize threats, push the situation to the brink of disaster and then, at the last minute, strike a deal.”
With inputs from Agence France-Presse
