Trump Suggests US Ownership Of Ukrainian Power Plants After Russia Launches New Strikes Despite Pledge

(RFE/RL) — President Donald Trump suggested during a call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the US take ownership of Ukraine’s power plants as he seeks to bridge a wide divide between Moscow and Kyiv and secure a full cease-fire in Europe’s largest war in decades.

Trump told Zelenskyy that US ownership of Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants “would be the best protection for that infrastructure,” according to a White House readout of the March 19 call.

The proposal reflects Trump’s belief that US ownership of Ukrainian assets would effectively serve as a security guarantee for the embattled country because Russia would presumably refrain from targeting them out of fear of escalation with the United States.

Kyiv’s demand for security guarantees lie at the heart of the shuttle diplomacy between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States to secure a peace deal. Zelenskyy wants any final peace deal to include Western security guarantees for Ukraine to deter Russia from invading again, but Trump has so far refused to commit the United States to the country’s defense.

During the call, which the White House described as “fantastic,” Trump promised to look into acquiring more Patriot anti-air missile systems for Ukraine while Zelenskyy agreed not to target Russian energy assets for 30 days. Ukraine has struggled to protect its cities from Russian attacks due to a lack of air defense.

In a social media post, Trump said the goal of the call with Zelenskyy was “to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs.”

Trump has made ending the war in Ukraine, which has killed or wounded more than a million people, a top priority for his administration. However, Moscow and Kyiv remain so far apart on key issues — such as land exchanges and security guarantees for Ukraine — that the Trump administration will need to use various carrots and sticks if it hopes to bring them together.

So far, Trump has mainly leaned on Ukraine, temporarily halting military assistance until Zelenskyy agreed last week to a 30-day unconditional cease-fire. Putin rejected the cease-fire proposal during a March 18 call with the US president, settling instead for a temporary halt in energy and infrastructure strikes, the first de-escalation step of the war. Zelenskyy subsequently reciprocated.

Putin agreed to continue talks with the US toward achieving a full cease-fire. US negotiators will meet with Ukrainian and Russian counterparts in the coming days to work on extending the partial cease-fire to the Black Sea.

Experts say that Putin has not given up on his goals of subjugate Ukraine and will seek to drag out the talks while his forces have the advantage on the battlefield. Russia wants to fully control the four regions of Ukraine it claims to have annexed in 2022. It would fall short of that goal were it to agree to a full-cease fire now.

Trump has threatened to impose tough sanctions and tariffs on Russia if it obstructs the path toward peace deal but experts question whether the US president would come down hard on Russia considering he values his relationship with Putin.

“Trump has shown that he can pressure Zelenskyy. Is he willing and able to pressure Putin? If not, then what is he going to do? Putin is making it clear that he’s not changing his goals,” Mark Katz, a Russia expert and professor emeritus of government and politics at George Mason University, told RFE/RL.

Putin’s Promise

Shortly after Putin agreed not to target Ukrainian energy facilities and infrastructure during the partial cease-fire period, Russia stuck two hospitals and a railway power station, injuring several people.

Zelenskyy said Russia launched 150 drones overnight at targets that also included energy facilities. Residents of Kyiv told RFE/RL they did not put much faith in the agreement between Trump and Putin.

Russia has targeted Ukraine’s power infrastructure with missiles and drones in an attempt to break of the will of the Ukrainian people by denying them light and heat in the winter.

Luke Coffey, an analyst at the Hudson Institute, called Putin’s concession on energy infrastructure strikes “the bare minimum” he could offer Trump.

“With warmer weather in Ukraine, Putin likely would have scaled back strikes on energy regardless,” he said in a tweet, adding that the Kremlin leader “remains the primary obstacle to peace.”

The Kremlin’s readout from the talks suggested the scope of their agreement was limited to a pause in strikes on energy infrastructure, while the wording of the White House’s statement differed slightly, referring to an “energy and infrastructure cease-fire.”

“There must be checks over Putin’s words. And the United States could lead that monitoring…. We will write up a list of buildings and structures hit by Russian drones and missiles. If the Russians stop targeting our buildings, we will stop our strikes on Russian territories,” Zelenskyy said.

“There is a long path to reach first the cease-fire, and then a long-term peace,” he added.

The Kremlin denied the attack saying it had halted its targeting of Ukrainian energy facilities and instead accused Kyiv of launching attacks on equipment near one of its pipelines.

Moscow said Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight, igniting a fire and damaging a pipeline connecting storage tanks, Russian emergency officials confirmed, adding there were no casualties.

Ukraine has retaliated against the strikes on its power system by targeting Russian oil assets, such as refineries and storage facilities. Russia’s war machine is heavily dependent on oil export revenues, which account for about a third of federal budget revenues.

While Trump described his call with Putin as “very good and productive,” Zelenskyy has expressed disappointment with the outcome, saying it showed Putin isn’t interested in peace and was determined “to drag out the war.”

US envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on March 18 that fresh talks with Russia on the Ukraine war will now take place on March 23 in Jeddah.

“The devil is in the details. We’ve got a team going to Saudi Arabia, led by our national-security adviser and our secretary of state, and I think, you know, we’ve got to figure out those details,” Witkoff said.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is ready to send a team for further cease-fire discussions with the United States, while reiterating Kyiv will not recognize Russian sovereignty over any occupied Ukrainian territory — a condition for any peace agreement that Putin has voiced several times.