Trump Says Putin Wants a Deal More Than Zelensky, Claims Ceasefire Set
Trump said Monday that Vladimir Putin is more eager for a settlement than Volodymyr Zelensky and insisted a ceasefire is already agreed, as Kyiv and Moscow dispute whether one exists.
President Donald Trump said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine more than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky does, and repeated his claim that a ceasefire covering energy infrastructure has already been agreed, according to the Jerusalem Post.
“They agreed. You know why? Because I said, ‘You agree’ — that’s why,” Trump said, according to the Jerusalem Post report. “They agreed because I said they agreed, and that thing has to get settled.”
The comments deepen a dispute that has run for days over whether Russia and Ukraine are observing any energy-infrastructure truce at all. Ukrainian officials have publicly contradicted Trump’s account of a ceasefire, and PBS reports that Kyiv disputes Trump’s claim, pointing in part to a separate U.S.-Russia diesel arrangement that has drawn criticism from Ukrainian officials.
A fight over what was actually agreed
The disagreement follows a pattern established over the past several days. AmericaStrikes reported Sunday that Trump first claimed an energy ceasefire had been reached, a claim Zelensky’s office pushed back on almost immediately. Trump later narrowed his own description of the arrangement, saying it applied only to refineries rather than the broader energy grid. Ukrainian officials have said Russia has continued to strike energy sites since the ceasefire was first announced, undercutting the U.S. account.
The Kremlin, for its part, rejected a 60-day ceasefire proposal over the weekend, saying it wants a comprehensive peace settlement rather than a temporary pause in fighting. That position is consistent with Trump’s framing Monday that Putin is the more willing party at the table — though it leaves open the question of what, specifically, Moscow would accept as a final deal, and on what territorial and security terms.
Moscow has shown little discomfort with the current state of confusion. PBS reported separately that the Kremlin has welcomed both the U.S.-Russia diesel deal and Trump’s public criticism of Zelensky, framing both as validation of Moscow’s position. The diesel arrangement — which allows continued Russian fuel exports under terms negotiated separately from the broader ceasefire question — has become its own point of friction between Washington and Kyiv.
Why the dispute matters
For Ukraine, the stakes of the disagreement are direct: if Washington treats a ceasefire as settled fact while Russian strikes on energy infrastructure continue, Kyiv’s leverage to call out violations narrows. Zelensky’s government has consistently maintained that Russian attacks have continued after the date Trump cited for the ceasefire’s start, a claim that, if accurate, would mean the public U.S. and Russian accounts of the state of the war are not describing the same reality.
For Moscow, ambiguity about whether a ceasefire exists costs little and may help. A disputed, informal truce lets Russian officials claim credit for de-escalation while facing no binding enforcement mechanism, and the Kremlin’s public response Monday — welcoming both the diesel deal and Trump’s Zelensky criticism — suggests Moscow sees the current confusion as net favorable to its negotiating position.
Trump has not detailed what mechanism, if any, would verify compliance with the ceasefire he describes, nor has the White House published written terms. Absent that, the dispute between Washington, Kyiv and Moscow over what was actually agreed is likely to continue shaping each side’s public statements more than it shapes conditions on the ground.
AmericaStrikes will continue tracking statements from the White House, the Kremlin and Zelensky’s office as the ceasefire dispute develops.
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