Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says he is open to a "partial ceasefire" after a "frank" call with US President Trump, who suggested the United States take over Ukrainian power plants as a security guarantee. DW has more. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy spoke to President Trump following the US leader's call to Vladimir Putin Germany's Pistorius says 'Putin playing a game' after Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure EU's Kallas says Putin clearly unwilling to make concessions Ukraine says Russia fired six missiles, 145 drones after Putin-Trump call This is a round-up of significant developments concerning Russia's war in Ukraine on Wednesday, March 19. Ukrainian frontline troops suspicious of Trump and Putin's proposals While US President Donald Trump attempts to engage in international telephone diplomacy with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Ukrainian soldiers on the frontlines in Donetsk are not hopeful that much will change. Oleg, 33, doesn't believe that there will "ever" be a ceasefire with Russia. "This country has been at war its entire existence," he tells the French AFP news agency. "Going to war is probably in their DNA." For Roman, also 33 and serving since the full-scale invasion in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin is only offering to halt the targeting of energy infrastructure because it "benefits him." "He doesn't want his oil refineries being bombed," he reasons. "His tanks need gas." Should such a partial ceasefire come into effect — both Putin and Zelenskyy have told Trump they would maintain such a ceasefire — it will be up to soldiers like Oleksandr, who commands a drone reconnaissance unit, to observe and police it. "We'll be able to monitor the situation along the line of contact and observe the extent to which the conditions are being respected," he explains. "We certainly won't be short of work, at any rate." Oleksandr is also concerned that any temporary ceasefire would be advantageous to Russia since Putin is also demanding that Ukraine halt its mobilization and rearmament efforts. "Whatever happens, we won't remain idle with our arms crossed; we'll learn and develop and continue defending our country," he says. "It's impossible to negotiate with terrorists." Trump suggests US control of Ukrainian power stations in 'frank' call with Zelenskyy US President Donald Trump has suggested that the United States could take over the operation of Ukrainian power plants in order to guarantee their security. Trump made the suggestion in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, telling him the US could be "very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise," according to a White House statement. Trump added that "American ownership of those plants could be the best protection for that infrastructure." The idea of a vested American economic interest or of the presence of American civilians in Ukraine was also part of the thinking behind the proposed US-Ukraine minerals deal. The deal was put on ice after the shouting match between Trump and Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last month. Wednesday's approximately one-hour phone call, described in the White House statement as "fantastic," was the first conversation between the two presidents since that meeting. It also came just one day after Trump had held a two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which he claimed that Moscow had agreed to halt its bombardment of Ukrainian energy infrastructure for 30 days. In return, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Zelenskyy had agreed to a "partial ceasefire," which would include halting retaliatory attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure. "One of the first steps towards fully ending the war could be ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure," Zelenskyy wrote on social media following the call. "I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it." Zelenskyy described the call with Trump as "very substantive and frank," saying: "We instructed our teams to resolve technical issues related to implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire. Ukrainian and American teams are ready to meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to continue coordinating steps toward peace." EU's Kallas to propose providing Ukraine with 2 million rounds of artillery ammunition European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wants to provide Ukraine with 2 million rounds of large-caliber artillery ammunition worth around €5 billion ($5.43 billion), which she says are "available on the market and could be delivered in 2025." Kallas said on Wednesday that she intends to present the proposal to European leaders at a meeting of the European Council on Thursday, where she will "stress the importance of supporting this objective." The EU's diplomatic service last week circulated a discussion paper saying the bloc should be prepared to double its military aid to Ukraine this year to €40bn, but multiple countries have expressed concerns about going so far. Instead, in a letter seen by Reuters news agency, Kallas is pushing for her artillery ammunition plan as a first step. The proposal comes as Kallas also presented an EU Commission white paper laying out plans to facilitate European rearmament. Trump says he had 'a very good telephone call' with Zelenskyy US President Donald Trump said he had "a very good telephone call" with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy that lasted approximately one hour. "Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs," Trump wrote is a post on Truth Social. He added that the leaders are "very much on track," and he will ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Michael Waltz to provide a description of what was discussed soon. Waltz says US, Russian technical teams to meet in Riyadh White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said he spoke with his Russian counterpart, Yuri Ushakov, about "President Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine." The advisers have agreed that their "technical teams would meet in Riyadh in the coming days to focus on implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire President Trump secured from Russia," Waltz wrote on X. He did not mention who was part of the delegations or whether Ukrainian officials were also invited to take part in the upcoming talks. US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone Tuesday and agreed to a pause in attacks on energy infrastructure in Russia's war on Ukraine, but Putin did not agree to Trump's proposal for a broader 30-day ceasefire. Russia and Ukraine exchange 175 prisoners each Russia and Ukraine have conducted a prisoner exchange, with each country handing over 175 military personnel, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The exchange was announced the day before by the Kremlin in a statement following a phone call between the Russian and US presidents. According to the ministry, the Russian side also transferred to Ukraine "as a goodwill gesture" 22 seriously wounded prisoners of war in need of urgent medical care. The Kremlin said in a statement that Ukraine would receive 23 seriously wounded servicemen in addition to the 175 prisoners of war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the exchange. The United Arab Emirates had mediated the deal, he wrote in a social media post. "We are bringing back soldiers, sergeants, and officers — warriors who fought for our freedom in the ranks of the Armed Forces, the Navy, the National Guard, the Territorial Defense Forces, and the Border Guard Service," Zelenskyy said. Germany moves to rush aid to Ukraine after debt reform vote Germany is set to deliver additional military supplies to Ukraine this year after the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, approved debt reform on Tuesday, paving the way for a massive increase in defense spending. The measure must still be approved by a two-thirds majority in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament, on Friday. According to German dpa news agency sources in the Bundestag, the influential Budget Committee will decide by Friday on a multi-billion euro increase in aid for Ukraine. The package includes €3 billion ($3.3 billion) in aid for 2025 and a further €8.3 billion for the years 2026 to 2029. A spokesman for Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the equipment would consist of Iris-T air defense systems, guided missiles, surveillance radars, drones, combat vehicles and light weapons. France says Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure show gap between words and deeds Russia's strikes on Ukrainian territory Tuesday night, including on civilian infrastructure, show that there is a difference between what Moscow says and how it acts, the French Foreign Ministry said. "Russia's strikes on Ukrainian territory last night, some of which targeted civilian infrastructure, demonstrate the gap between Moscow's words and actions," Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine told reporters. "Unlike Russia, Ukraine accepted the proposal for an immediate, complete, and unconditional ceasefire put forward by the United States to Saudi Arabia," he added. According to the Ukrainian air force, Russia fired 145 drones and six missiles during the night after President Vladimir Putin agreed in a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump to temporarily suspend attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Russia's enforced disappearances of Ukrainians amount to crimes against humanity — UN Russia's "widespread and systematic" use of enforced disappearances and torture of Ukrainians during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine amounts to crimes against humanity, a United Nations commission has found. Large numbers of civilians were detained in areas under Russian control or deported to Russia, where some were later subjected to torture and sexual violence, according to a new report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine. "Both were perpetrated as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population and pursuant to a coordinated state policy," said the report, which was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. "The most brutal forms of torture were used during interrogations, which were often led by the Federal Security Service and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation," the report added. Russia has failed to disclose the whereabouts of missing persons, leaving Ukrainian families in agonizing uncertainty, Erik Mose, the commission's chairman, told the UN Human Rights Council. At least 50,000 people have been reported missing in the war between Ukraine and Russia over the last year, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in February. Finland's president says Russia must accept ceasefire 'without conditions' Russia must unconditionally accept theceasefire with Ukraine proposed by US President Donald Trump if it wants to achieve "real peace," Finnish President Alexander Stubb said. "There are only two ways to respond to the proposal of the President of the United States: yes or no... but no conditions," Stubb said at a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is visiting Finland. "Ukraine accepted a ceasefire without any conditions," the Finnish president added. Stubb also emphasized that Ukraine has an undeniable right to defend itself, both independently and with the support of partners. Zelenskyy says he will speak with Trump on Wednesday Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would speak with his US counterpart Donald Trump later on Wednesday to get details of his Tuesday conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Today I will have contacts with President Trump and we will discuss the next steps," Zelenskyy told a news conference in Helsinki with his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb. He added that Putin's agreement to stop striking energy infrastructure was "very much at odds with reality" following a series of drone attacks across the country. The Ukrainian president stressed that the US should take control of monitoring a potential ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia, focusing on energy facilities. Zelenskyy said that one of the most difficult issues in future negotiations would be the issue of territorial concessions. "For us, the red line is the recognition of the Ukrainian temporarily occupied territories as Russian. We will not go for it," he said. He also said that Kyiv's allies should increase their support for Ukraine, after Russian leader Vladimir Putin demanded that the West halt its military and intelligence assistance. "I do not believe that we should make any concessions in terms of assistance for Ukraine, but rather there should be an increase in assistance for Ukraine," Zelenskyy added. Russia accuses Ukraine of sabotaging halt to energy strikes The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of trying to sabotage a 30-day moratorium on attacks on each other's energy infrastructure with a deliberate drone strike on an oil depot in southern Russia. The ministry said in a statement that the attack came hours after a phone call between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, in which they agreed to the moratorium. Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said Russia also launched the barrage of strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure hours after the Trump-Putin phone call. EU top diplomat says Putin clearly unwilling to make concessions The European Union's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that Russia cannot be trusted and that President Vladimir Putin's call with US President Donald Trump showed Russia wasn't interested in making "concessions" on Ukraine. "If you read the two readouts from the call, it is clear that Russia does not really want to make any kind of concessions," Kallas told reporters in Brussels. She also insisted the Kremlin's demands to stop arming Kyiv can't be accepted. "What Russia wants is that Ukraine will let all the guards down," Kallas said. "If they achieve that no military aid to Ukraine, then they are free to continue, because the Ukrainians can't defend themselves. So I mean, clearly this can't work," she added. Putin declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire, which Trump had hoped would be the first step toward a permanent peace deal, but the leaders agreed to a scaled-back commitment to halt attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days. Within hours of the call, Moscow unleashed a new barrage of airstrikes. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had hit civilian infrastructure, including a hospital, and accused the Kremlin of effectively rejecting the US-backed ceasefire. Ukraine says Russia fired six missiles, 145 drones after Putin-Trump call Ukraine said Russian forces fired six missiles and 145 drones at the country overnight. Authorities said the barrage of strikes on civilian infrastructure killed one person and damaged two hospitals. It came hours after Moscow agreed to halt attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities. Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump agreed in a phone call that Russia and Ukraine stop attacking each other's energy infrastructure for 30 days. The Ukrainian air force said its air defense units had shot down 72 of 145 drones, but did not mention the missiles. The general prosecutor's office said a hospital in the northeastern Sumy region was hit late Tuesday and that 21 staff and 147 patients were in the facility at the time of the attack. Prosecutors said a 29-year-old man was killed and three other residents were wounded in a separate Russian attack on a residential building in the region, which borders Russia. Meanwhile, Ukraine's national railway service said a railway power infrastructure in the central Dnipropetrovsk region had been hit by drones. Services were not interrupted, it added. Pistorius says 'Putin playing a game' after new strikes on Ukraine Germany accused President Vladimir Putin of "playing a game" following Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure after the Russian leader agreed to temporarily halt attacks on energy facilities. "We've seen that attacks on civilian infrastructure have not eased at all in the first night after this supposedly ground-breaking, great phone call" between Putin and US President Donald Trump, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a TV interview, adding that "Putin is playing a game." The German minister also described as "unacceptable" the Kremlin's insistence that a "key condition" for peace would be a complete halt to Western military and intelligence support for Ukraine's embattled military. "This is very transparent," Pistorius said, adding that Putin aimed to prevent Kyiv's backers from "further supporting Ukraine and enabling it to really defend itself if there is another attack, during or after a ceasefire."