A limited ceasefire, with vague outlines, is better than nothing. Under pressure from the United States, Volodymyr Zelensky had given his agreement in principle to a complete cessation of hostilities for 30 days. But his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had preferred a restricted version, limited to energy infrastructure.

During a phone call lasting about an hour on Wednesday, March 19, between Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president, the two men more or less aligned themselves with the Kremlin position, which is supposed to set in motion a peace process.

Zelensky, talking to Trump for the first time since his extremely tense visit to the White House on February 28, had no choice but to be conciliatory, to avoid offending the American president. The war-torn country's president spoke on X of a "positive, very substantive, and frank conversation": "We believe that together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership, lasting peace can be achieved this year." On Truth Social, Trump merely described the conversation as "very good." But in a lengthy joint statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz went into more detail. Some of them are surprising.

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