Trump says he will discuss ceasefire with Putin – DW – 03/17/2025

In a post to Telegram, Ukraine’s military announced that it faced 174 Russian drone attacks overnight, shooting down 90 of them.

The strategically significant port city of Odessa, one of the cities attacked, has been hit by daily strikes for three weeks in a row.

According to the region’s governor, one civilian was injured, while a residential home and a kindergarten were damaged.

The local electricity grid was also struck, reportedly causing power outages for 500 residents.

Russia continues to deny it is targeting civilians.

Despite Ukraine’s acceptance of the US’s ceasefire plans, the majority of EU governments believe that allowing Russia to keep any Ukrainian land should be off the table.

“Most of [the EU member states] are very concerned about what we’re hearing from the White House,” DW Brussels Bureau Chief Alexandra von Nahmen said.

“The only peace that can be achieved is a just peace for Ukraine,” she said, paraphrasing the bloc’s dedication to Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

She said the only EU member that might be wholeheartedly in favor of the ceasefire would be Hungary, which has maintained a broadly pro-Russia stance.

US President Donald Trump has said he will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. Trump said they would discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

The White House believes that discussions between US and Russian officials in Moscow have gone positively, and that it is now time for the two leaders to speak directly to each other.

“We want to see if we can bring that war to an end,” Trump said. “Maybe we can, maybe we can’t. But I think we have a very good chance.”

Last week, the Trump administration unveiled its proposals for a 30-day ceasefire between the warring parties. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the deal “would involve a lot of hard work,” and hinges on “concessions from both Russia and Ukraine.”

Despite contesting aspects of the ceasefire proposal, Ukraine has backed the proposal.

Foreign ministers from the European Union are meeting in Brussels to discuss Ukraine aid on Monday.

The meeting concerns a proposal of €40 billion ($43.5 billion) in military aid to Ukraine, and comes ahead of a wider meeting of EU leaders in Thursday.

“If we can sustain this amount… for a longer period of time, that would be the amount that would allow Ukrainians to keep their armed forces at current strength,” said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys, whose country backed the proposal yesterday.

With US funding for Ukraine’s war effort thrown into doubt by the Trump administration, the European Union hopes to unite to fill that gap.

Reports suggest participation in the funding scheme will be voluntary to prevent any possible vetos from dissenting states such as Hungary, which has been consistently against aiding Ukraine.

According to reports, the amount of funding expected from each country will be proportional to their economic size.

Germany has made its commitment clear, with €4 billion ($4.35 billion) for this year already approved.

But other countries such as France, Spain and Italy will have to increase their spending commitments to be in line with the scheme.