A much-anticipated phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin got off to a poor start on Tuesday afternoon when Putin kept his American counterpart waiting for over an hour.

What business was more urgent than negotiating a ceasefire in Ukraine? Putin was speaking to a roomful of oligarchs at the Moscow International Music Hall, and he was evidently in no hurry to leave. When asked if he was late to the all-important call, Putin dismissed the question with a wave of his hand.

The stakes for the Putin-Trump call were heightened after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed last week to a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, after Trump withheld intelligence that Ukraine needed to operate its U.S.-provided weapons systems properly.

However, Putin changed the terms, narrowing the ceasefire proposal to protect only energy and infrastructure installations. According to an American readout of the call, “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.”

“With agreeing to a limited and temporary ceasefire, this is a first step in the right direction towards getting to a permanent peace that President Trump has talked about,” Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-N.C.) said hopefully on “Washington Watch.”

Zelensky showed far less patience with Putin. “Today, Putin effectively rejected the proposal for a full ceasefire. It would be right for the world to respond by rejecting any attempts by Putin to prolong the war,” he responded on social media.

In fairness to Zelensky, Putin has proposed a list of conditions for a permanent ceasefire that would alarm any Ukrainian who didn’t want to become a Russian subject in the near future. Putin has demanded that:

• Ukraine permanently renounce any claim to Crimea, Sevastopol, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk, or 20% of its pre-war territory;
• Ukraine disarm itself of any NATO weapons (which would include $69.7 billion worth of weapon systems and ammunition from the U.S., $13.7 billion from Germany, $10.8 billion from the U.K., $8.1 billion from Denmark, $5.1 billion from Sweden, $.39 billion from Poland, $3.8 billion from France, and $2.8 billion from Canada);
• Ukraine cap its army at 50,000 troops, a 94% reduction from its current size;
• Ukraine halt any mobilization or training of troops;
• No foreign peacekeepers enter Ukrainian territory;
• Ukraine abandon its ambition for NATO membership;
• The U.S. return six Russian diplomatic compounds seized between 2016 and 2018; and
• All Western economic sanctions be lifted.

In other words, Putin will only be content with a near-total victory that leaves Ukraine disarmed and defenseless, ready for him to resume his invasion at an opportune moment.

Hours after the Putin-Trump call, which agreed in principle to an infrastructure ceasefire, Russia attacked Ukrainian civilian infrastructure overnight, Ukraine said. “Unfortunately, there have been hits, specifically on civilian infrastructure. A direct hit by a ‘Shahed’ drone on a hospital in Sumy, strikes on cities in the Donetsk region, and attack drones currently in the skies over the Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Cherkasy regions,” Zelensky announced.

“It is these types of nighttime attacks by Russia that destroy our energy sector, our infrastructure, and the normal life of Ukrainians,” he added. “And the fact that this night is no exception shows that the pressure on Russia must continue for the sake of peace.”

No word of condemnation has issued from the Trump administration for these Russian strikes. Naturally, Russia denied Ukraine’s claims, saying instead that Russia had shot down seven of its own drones headed for targets in Ukraine (can it not simply turn them around?). American Special Envoy Steve Witkoff told Bloomberg on Wednesday that he believes the Russians.

“President Trump has been very clear,” said Harrigan. “The American people are exhausted in their endless and significant support that they have made.”

Yet sometimes it seems that the Trump administration takes this (real) exhaustion too far, showing undue deference to the dictatorial invader, while treating the invaded democracy with skepticism at best and revulsion at worse. It’s prudent to remember that Putin is the unreliable bad guy in this war.

On Wednesday, Trump held a call with Zelensky “based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs.” Zelensky agreed to the ceasefire on civilian infrastructure proposed by Russia (better a little than nothing) and asked for U.S. help in locating additional Patriot missiles. “We are very much on track,” Trump said after the call. This suggests that, however messy the details, Russia and Ukraine might actually be inching toward at least a limited ceasefire.