Truce on track: Trump after dialling Zelenskyy

Russia and Ukraine accused each other on Wednesday of violating a new agreement to refrain from attacks on energy targets hours after it was agreed by US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

But a prisoner swap touted as a confidence-building step went ahead, and Trump followed Tuesday’s phone call with Putin with a call on Wednesday with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, saying afterwards that “we are very much on track”.

Trump said his “very good telephone call” with Zelenskiy lasted an hour, their first conversation since an Oval Office meeting descended into a shouting match on February 28.

The discussion followed Tuesday’s call with Putin, and aimed “to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs”, Trump posted on social media.

That narrowly defined pause appeared in doubt on Wednesday, however, with Moscow saying Ukraine hit an oil depot in southern Russia while Kyiv said Russia had struck hospitals and homes, and knocked out power to some of its railways.

Still, the two sides carried out an exchange of prisoners, each releasing 175 troops in a deal facilitated by the United Arab Emirates.