US President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News, commenting on the conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, that Russia has the advantage, as the Russian armed forces have surrounded about 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers.
"I think we had a wonderful conversation, it lasted almost two hours. We talked about a lot of things and we sought peace", he said, "Russia has the advantage. As you know, they have surrounded about 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers."
On March 18, Putin and Trump discussed the situation in Ukraine, the conditions for preventing escalation and some international issues by phone. The Russian president agreed to his interlocutor's proposal for the parties to the Ukrainian conflict to mutually refrain from striking energy infrastructure facilities for 30 days. According to the White House, the parties also agreed to begin technical negotiations on the introduction of a “ceasefire in the Black Sea, a complete ceasefire and permanent peace“.
The key condition for work on resolving the conflict should be “a complete cessation of foreign military assistance and the provision of intelligence information to Kiev“, the Kremlin emphasized.
US President Donald Trump said that he had not discussed the issue of Western military assistance to Ukraine with Putin.
"We talked about a lot of things, but assistance was not discussed at all," the American leader said. Trump responded negatively when asked whether the Russian side had demanded the cessation of military aid to Kiev as one of the conditions for reaching ceasefire agreements.
The US president said that it was true that his country wanted to improve its relations with Russia.