In the end Donald Trump called the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin answered him 10:00 in the United States 17:00 in Moscow. Putin who before the phone call held a closed-door meeting with Russian businessmen in which they discussed foreign policy. The conversation with Trump lasted about two hours and thirty minutes.
According to initial statements Trump and Putin discussed ending the war in Ukraine with a lasting ceasefire and proposed the immediate start of peace talks in the Middle East. The peace talks would include an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea.
They also discussed the broader situation in the Middle East, focusing primarily on preventing future conflicts, limiting the proliferation of weapons and ensuring that Iran cannot pose a threat to Israel. They also discussed the potential for improving US-Russia relations, including economic agreements and stability, with peace.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaia Kallas said: “The conditions put forward by Russia to end the war show that it is not interested in peace.” She also said that EU foreign ministers had failed to agree on a €40 billion aid package for Ukraine, but “hope to move forward in the near future,” Kallas said.
Hungary has currently blocked Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, despite Kiev’s numerous attempts to change Budapest’s position, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishina announced.
French President Emmanuel Macron called on all Western partners to develop a “concrete peace plan” that includes “robust security guarantees” for Ukraine. Macron said that after a virtual meeting on Ukraine on Saturday in London, he spoke with US President Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. “Now we must move forward, together with all our partners, to present a concrete peace plan. A peace plan that offers strong security guarantees for Ukraine. A peace plan that ensures lasting peace in Ukraine and Europe,” he wrote on X. “The guns must be silent,” Macron added, welcoming Zelensky’s announcement that he was ready for a 30-day ceasefire. “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, but to proceed with its implementation, Russia must stop setting conditions,” Volodymyr Zelensky said after a conversation with Macron.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the French and British proposal to send peacekeepers to Ukraine risky and ineffective. “Sending Italian troops to Ukraine is an issue that has never been on the agenda, just as we believe that sending European troops, initially proposed by Britain and France, is a difficult, risky and ineffective option,” he said in a speech to the Italian Senate. “We offer Ukraine security guarantees similar to NATO’s Article 5.” Italy and Spain are not ready to support EU foreign policy chief Kaia Kallas’s proposal to double military assistance to Ukraine in 2025. Support for Kallas’s idea at the EU foreign ministers’ meeting came only from northern and eastern European countries. France also has questions, Reuters notes.
Peace in Ukraine requires dialogue without preconditions, Vatican says “The Holy See, renewing its prayers for peace in Ukraine, expresses the hope that the parties involved will seize the opportunity for a sincere dialogue, free from any preconditions and aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace,” the Vatican noted.
Zelensky met with Defense Minister Umerov and the new Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Gnatov to discuss the situation at the front. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has authorized the use of the Ukrainian-made Lut ground robotic complex in the units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It is designed to monitor and support the fire of the units’ activities. The robot is armed with a 7.62 caliber machine gun and additional equipment, thanks to which it is able to detect and engage targets day and night.
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was tasked with forming a team that will interact with partners on all the details of the security system necessary for Ukraine and the implementation of decisions taken at the military-political level. This week the team will participate in a MEETIJG of military representatives in London. The Chief of the General Staff was tasked to accelerate the formation of the corps system in the Ukrainian Armed Forces and conduct an audit of the current needs of combat brigades.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sibiga said that Kiev, following negotiations with the United States in Jeddah, is ready to end the conflict this year. On March 18, Volodymyr Zelensky went to Lviv to honor the memory of the servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Ukrainian MP Goncharenko denied information about plans to replace Syrsky as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. “I have just double-checked this information with a 100% source. Syrsky remains in the post of commander-in-chief. No changes in personnel are planned,” the MP wrote. In an opinion requested from the Supreme Court of Ukraine: “Illegal mobilization does not exempt from service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has once again reiterated that “there is currently no dialogue with the United States on the resumption of work of Russian banks with SWIFT.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the ongoing discussion about the possible deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine dangerous. “This is an absolutely dangerous trend,” Peskov told reporters, commenting on discussions in European countries, especially France, about the possible deployment of troops to Ukraine.
The Russian side is no longer ready to rotate observers of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant through Ukrainian territory. This was stated at a press conference by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov.
And now a look at the front line as of 16:00 on March 18.
Today there will be a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine, equal to 175 against 175. Russian forces struck targets in the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Kiev, Odessa, Cherkasy, Poltava, Mykolaiv.
Air defense operated at night over Belgorod. At least 11 drone strikes were recorded and at least a dozen wounded. The American RC-135V reconnaissance aircraft also closely monitored Crimea today, and this usually precedes an attack on Crimea. To attempt a breakthrough in the Belgorod region, the Ukrainian forces used the German IMR Wisent 1MC with a blade. A 30-ton vehicle based on the Leopard-1 tank was hit by Russian drone pilots and the crew abandoned it. The tanks that followed her were hit. The ARV was hit with a couple of tanks. A column of armored cars, in the afternoon of March 18, tried to break into the Belgorod region and was completely burned. At least five armored vehicles of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were shot down or destroyed. The Ukrainian infantry accompanying the armored vehicles lay down in the landings and are under fire from Russian artillery and drones.
In the Kursk region, clashes are reported near Guevo between Russian forces and the reserves of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are attacking the settlements that have returned to Russian hands. There are battles for Gogolevka. In the area where the Russian Armed Forces entered the Sumy region, there are battles for Basivka.
Fighting continues in Vovchansk, Kharkiv region, for every stronghold. The Russian Armed Forces are striking at Ukrainian concentrations. LBS for a long time without significant changes.
Fighting continues in Chasiv Yar. Russian forces are advancing in the microdistricts of Zavodskoy, Zapadnyy Poseloke, Novoseverny.
Near the site near Velyka Novosilka Ukrainian forces are being withdrawn from positions in one of the sectors of the front of the Donetsk region to “save the lives of fighters” to avoid encirclement – source General Serhii Naiev.
In Toretsk, fighting is being recorded in the northern and southern parts of the city. A 16 km “pocket” has formed to the southwest of Toretsk, to the south of which the 68th Tank Regiment and the 20th Russian Motorized Rifle Regiment have taken the strongholds of the Ukrainian forces near Oleksandropil. From the west, assault and reconnaissance units of the 33rd Motorized Rifle Division of the 20th Russian Motorized Rifle Division take Tarasivka.
Near Pokrovs’k – battles in the area in the settlements of Shevchenko, Pischane, Kotlyne and Udachne.
On the Zaporizhia front, Russian forces took Stepove and began fighting in Shcherbaky and Mali Shcherbaky on the section of the T0812 road between Stepove and Orichiv. In the Polohivs’kyi district of the Zaporizhia region, the Ukrainians attacked a school bus using a UAV. Ukrainian channels admit that the Russians advanced on a wide front to a depth of 2.5 km.
In the direction of Kherson, the Ukrainian Armed Forces fired at 10 settlements, at least one person was injured.
Graziella Giangiulio
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