WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has raised the possibility of the United States taking ownership of Ukrainian power plants, the White House said on Wednesday as efforts to end the war with Russia proceed.

“American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” Karoline Leavitt told a briefing hours after Trump spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump hailed a “very good” call with Zelensky on Wednesday, a day after his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, agreed to temporarily halt attacks on Kyiv’s power plants.

Trump said efforts to secure a full ceasefire remained “on track” despite the fact that his call with Putin failed to produce any broader peace deal.

In phone call with the US president, Zelensky says Kyiv is ready to stop attacks on Russian power plants

As Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of continuing attacks, Zelensky said after the “frank” call that Ukraine was ready to pause strikes on both Russian energy and civilian infrastructure.

Trump said he spoke for around an hour with his Ukrainian counterpart, their first conversation since they had a blazing televised row in the Oval Office just over two weeks ago.

“Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.

“We are very much on track.”

The White House later said that during the call Trump had floated US “ownership” of Ukrainian power plants as it would be the “best protection” for them.

The billionaire former real estate mogul has already pushed Kyiv into a deal to give the United States preferential access to its critical mineral resources.

Trump also pledged to help Ukraine get more air defence equipment from Europe, a statement from National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

‘Rejected’

But while Ukraine has already agreed to a US plan for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire with Russia, Putin is still refusing.

The Kremlin leader insisted during his call with Trump that a full ceasefire was only possible if the West halts its billions of dollars in military aid to Kyiv _ Moscow’s long-standing demand.

Putin also demanded Ukraine must not be allowed to rearm, and that it must halt mandatory mobilisation.

Despite both Ukraine and Russia saying they now backed a temporary truce on power plants, each accused the other of failing to adhere to the halt.

Ukraine’s defence ministry said an overnight barrage of Russian missile and drones struck the war-battered nation, killing one person and damaging two hospitals.

“Today Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire,” said Zelensky.

Ukraine’s railway service said the barrage had hit railway energy infrastructure in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.

Russia’s defence ministry reported a “deliberate” Ukrainian attack overnight on an oil depot in the south of the country, which they said was aimed at “derailing” Trump’s attempts to broker an end to the fighting.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2025