(Illustrative photo: Tran Hieu/VNA)

The 30-day ceasefire was floated during a phone call between President Trump and President Putin on Tuesday. It was the second official conversation between the US and Russian leaders since Trump returned to the White House in January.

Positive but not enough

Under the agreement initiated by President Trump, supported by Russia, and accepted in principle by Ukraine, Russia and Ukraine will suspend all military actions targeting each other's energy infrastructure for 30 days from the time the agreement takes effect.

Trump said the ceasefire could be a stepping stone for broader negotiations leading to a more comprehensive truce or even a long-term peace agreement. This is the first time since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began three years ago that the two countries have come close to an agreement, even on such a limited scale and duration.

The partial ceasefire has sparked different reactions. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer have praised it as an encouraging first step toward a more comprehensive agreement.

However, other European politicians, such as EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares have expressed skepticism about the actual impact of the ceasefire for energy infrastructure, saying it does not create a breakthrough.

Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the CSIS Defense and Security Department, said the ceasefire proposal is a positive signal but insufficient, which is far from the expectations that surrounded the phone call between Trump and Putin.

Nigel Gould-Davies, a Senior Fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said neither Russia nor Ukraine is entirely satisfied with the proposal but is refraining from publicly voicing any disagreement with Washington at this time.

“What we have now is a competition, even rivalry, between Kiev and Moscow to persuade Trump that it's the other side that is responsible for preventing Trump from achieving his goal of ending the war,” said Cancian.

From another perspective, the ceasefire proposal carries positive implications for Ukraine and Europe, both of which have feared being sidelined in the peace negotiation between the US and Russia.

According to Jonathan Eyal, a researcher at the UK’s Royal United Services Institute, before the latest Trump-Putin phone call, Ukraine and Europe were concerned that Trump might offer excessive concessions to Russia in pursuit of a comprehensive ceasefire, regardless of the impact on Ukrainian and European interests. There is no evidence yet that this has happened.

Improved relations with the US

Specific terms of the temporary ceasefire agreement still require direct negotiations. Observers say the US-Russia delegation talks scheduled for Sunday in a Middle Eastern country will be an important step forward.

A statement by the Kremlin following the phone talk mentioned future economic cooperation between the US and Russia. According to Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s Special Envoy for International Economic and Investment Cooperation, Russia and the US have resumed regular contact to restore economic ties, and many American companies are expressing interest in returning to the Russian market.

Dmitriev also said he plans to meet with billionaire Elon Musk, a key figure in the current US administration, to discuss potential collaboration between Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, and Musk’s SpaceX on ambitious space projects.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had a frank and successful phone call with President Trump on Wednesday about a 30-day ceasefire agreement on energy infrastructure and broader security and economic cooperation. These developments suggest that US-Ukraine relations are improving since a disastrous meeting between Zelensky and Trump on February 28.

“We are now focused on a long-term peace agreement. As you know on the meeting between President Zelensky and President Trump, the Ukrainian President at the time wasn't talking about a greater peace deal. We are now at that place where we are talking about that. So we've moved beyond just the economic minerals deal framework and we're looking at a lasting ceasefire,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Observers say that, after putting a mineral agreement on hold, the US has introduced a new proposal concerning the ownership of Ukraine's power plants, including the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian control. If this proposal is agreed upon, it could become a significant factor in resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict.