Trump says 30-day ceasefire 'would have been tough' after high-stakes call with Putin

President Donald Trump held a high-stakes call with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday as the United States seeks a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

A White House readout of the call said Putin supports Trump's idea for a mutual pause on energy infrastructure attacks -- but did not include a commitment to the 30-day truce accepted by Ukraine last week despite Trump's optimism in recent days that Moscow would go along.

"Both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace," the White House said of the Trump-Putin call. "They also stressed the need for improved bilateral relations between the United States and Russia. The blood and treasure that both Ukraine and Russia have been spending in this war would be better spent on the needs of their people."

Hours after the call, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff touted the progress the White House believes it has made in negotiations with Russia and said talks are set to begin Sunday in Saudi Arabia.

The negotiations, which will take place in Jeddah, will be led by U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Witkoff said in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity.

Witkoff said he held more than seven hours of meetings with Putin in the days leading up to Trump's call with the Russian leader on Tuesday, which included discussions around halting attacks on energy infrastructure and efforts to do the same in the Black Sea, which Witkoff suggested has potentially laid the groundwork for a full ceasefire.

"I think the devil is in the details," Witkoff said. "We've got a team going to Saudi Arabia led by our national security advisor and our secretary of state. And I think we've got to figure out those details. The point is that up until recently we really didn't have consensus around these aspects: The energy and infrastructure ceasefire and the Black Sea moratorium on firing. Today we got to that place, and I think it's a relatively short distance to a full cease-fire from there."

After the call, Trump conceded the 30-day ceasefire sought by Ukraine "would have been tough" in a released clip of a pre-taped interview on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle," which aired in full Tuesday night.

"Right now, you have a lot of guns pointing at each other. And the ceasefire, without going a little bit further, would have been tough," Trump said. "I think we had a great call. ... Talked about a lot of things and toward getting it to peace. And we talked about other things also."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a news conference following Tuesday's developments, said he had "skepticism" but that "if there is a partial ceasefire, this is a positive result."

The White House statement on the call said: "This conflict should never have started and should have been ended long ago with sincere and good faith peace efforts. 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. These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East."

Trump, in his own social media post later Tuesday, called the hourslong conversation "very good and productive."

"We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine," Trump wrote.

Trump and Putin also spoke about the Middle East more broadly, including Iran, the White House said.

"The two leaders agreed that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside," the readout stated. "This includes enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved."

According to Russian state media, the Kremlin said Putin "supported" Trump's idea of a 30-day halt on attacking energy infrastructure in Russia and Ukraine.

But in terms of Trump's proposal for a broader monthlong truce, the Kremlin readout said that "the Russian side has identified a number of significant issues related to ensuring effective control over a possible ceasefire along the entire line of contact, the need to stop forced mobilization in Ukraine and the rearmament of the Armed Forces of Ukraine."

The Kremlin also said Putin believed a condition for ending the war should include a "complete cessation" of foreign military and intelligence assistance to Kyiv.

The Trump administration took drastic steps in stopping military aid and pausing some intelligence sharing with Ukraine after the Oval Office clash between Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Those two tools were resumed after Ukraine agreed to the 30-day ceasefire last Tuesday.

Ukraine has said it would need to approve any agreement.

Zelenskyy was asked by ABC News Chief International Correspondent James Longman during his news conference on Tuesday if he'd commit to an energy ceasefire and what he thought about Trump and Putin's relationship.

"It's hard to tell. It's hard to give an answer to the question in terms of the relationship between Trump and Putin," Zelenskyy responded. "I count on having a conversation with President Trump. We will understand the details. We have always supported the ceasefire position and not to use any weapons against the energy infrastructure, and also we have supported the position of not to attack the naval corridors."

"These were our proposals and we will support any proposals that would lead to stable and fair peace," he added. "But for that we would need to understand what we are talking about, what are the details and hopefully we will learn all those details so that the partners would be telling to us. Because there's two parties in this war, Russia and Ukraine, so without Ukraine I think many negotiations without Ukraine would not result in any help."

ABC News' Ellie Kaufman, Tanya Stuaklova, Michelle Stoddart and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.