Trump, Putin Agree to Russia-Ukraine Energy Infrastructure Ceasefire for 30 Days

FILED - 14 June 2019, Japan, Osaka: US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of the 2019 G20 summit. Photo: White House/dpa -
FILED - 14 June 2019, Japan, Osaka: US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of the 2019 G20 summit. Photo: White House/dpa -
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Trump, Putin Agree to Russia-Ukraine Energy Infrastructure Ceasefire for 30 Days

FILED - 14 June 2019, Japan, Osaka: US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of the 2019 G20 summit. Photo: White House/dpa -
FILED - 14 June 2019, Japan, Osaka: US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of the 2019 G20 summit. Photo: White House/dpa -

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Tuesday to a proposal by US President Donald Trump that Russia and Ukraine cease attacking each other's energy infrastructure for 30 days, the Kremlin said following a lengthy phone discussion between the leaders.

The two countries plan to begin negotiations "immediately" in the Middle East on a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, according to a readout from the White House.

"The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace," the White House readout said.

Trump had been pressuring Putin to agree to a US-backed 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine has already accepted as part of a move toward a permanent peace deal to end Europe's biggest conflict since World War Two. The war has killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions and reduced entire towns to rubble.

Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, said last week he supported in principle Washington's proposal for a truce but that his forces would fight on until several crucial conditions were worked out. 



Somali Militants Target Presidential Convoy in Bomb Attack, President Safe

A police tow-truck leaves the scene of an explosion near the Presidential Palace, also known as Villa Somalia, in the Hamar Jajab district of Mogadishu, Somalia March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Feisal Omar
A police tow-truck leaves the scene of an explosion near the Presidential Palace, also known as Villa Somalia, in the Hamar Jajab district of Mogadishu, Somalia March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Feisal Omar
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Somali Militants Target Presidential Convoy in Bomb Attack, President Safe

A police tow-truck leaves the scene of an explosion near the Presidential Palace, also known as Villa Somalia, in the Hamar Jajab district of Mogadishu, Somalia March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Feisal Omar
A police tow-truck leaves the scene of an explosion near the Presidential Palace, also known as Villa Somalia, in the Hamar Jajab district of Mogadishu, Somalia March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Feisal Omar

Al Shabaab militants targeted Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in a bomb attack on his motorcade as it was traveling through the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, the group said.

Two senior government and military officials told Reuters that Mohamud was safe following the attack, and presidential adviser Zakariye Hussein wrote in a post on X that he was “good and well on his way to the front lines.”

Soldiers and local residents who witnessed the attack confirmed that the president's convoy had been hit.

A Reuters journalist at the scene saw the bodies of four people killed in the assault near the presidential palace.

“Our fighters targeted a convoy of vehicles carrying Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as they were leaving the presidential palace and heading to the airport,” al Shabaab said in a statement posted on the al Qaeda-linked group's Telegram channel.

While al Shabaab regularly carries out attacks in Somalia as part of its decades-long campaign to topple the government, Tuesday's attack was the first to directly target Mohamud since 2014, during his first term in office, when they bombed a hotel where he was speaking.

Hours after the attack on Tuesday, state media showed images of the president in the Adan Yabal district of Somalia's Middle Shabelle region, where government forces are battling a three-week-old al Shabaab offensive.

Meanwhile, more than 120 militants were killed and their bases were destroyed after the Somali army, with the help of international partners, launched strategic airstrikes within the Jilib town in the Middle Jubba.

On Tuesday, the Somali news agency, SONNA, said during the operation in Jilib, the army managed to control al Shabaab strongholds, killing 20 terrorist field commanders and destroying several militia bases.

“The operation targeted critical sites, including the district headquarters, a guerrilla command center, training camps, and an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) manufacturing facility,” the Army said.