KYIV, Ukraine — President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that they had a constructive call about moving toward a ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow, with Zelenskyy agreeing to accept Russia’s offer for a mutual pause in attacks on energy targets.

Trump also suggested that the U.S. could take control of Ukrainian power plants to ensure their security.

Trump told Zelenskyy that the U.S. could be “very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise,” according to a White House statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz that described the call as “fantastic.”

Trump added that “American ownership of those plants could be the best protection for that infrastructure.”

Weeks after a disastrous Oval Office meeting between the two leaders that led to Trump temporarily pausing intelligence sharing and military aid to Ukraine, Trump and Zelenskyy had “a very good conversation” in which they joked around, according to a senior Ukrainian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to comment publicly.

There was an emphasis during the call on how any ceasefire process would need to be monitored and how the negotiating teams would still need to resolve technical issues, the official said.

During the call, Zelenskyy requested additional Patriot defense missile systems.

Rubio and Waltz said Trump “agreed to work with him to find what was available, particularly in Europe.”

Trump has made clear that ending the war is a top priority for his new administration. He has repeatedly complained about the cost — the U.S. has sent Ukraine more than $180 billion in military and economic aid since the start of the war.

The call came a day after Trump held similar talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed not to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure but refused to back a full 30-day ceasefire.

According to the Kremlin, Putin made clear to Trump that there must be a halt to foreign military aid and intelligence sharing as part of any deal. But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday underscored that U.S. “intelligence sharing in terms of defense for Ukraine” would continue.

Prior to his call with Trump, Zelenskyy said Putin’s limited ceasefire pledge was “very much at odds with reality” following an overnight barrage of drone strikes across the country.

“Even last night, after Putin’s conversation with ... Trump, when Putin said that he was allegedly giving orders to stop strikes on Ukrainian energy, there were 150 drones launched overnight, including on energy facilities,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference in Helsinki with Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

Russia responded by saying it had halted its targeting of Ukraine’s energy facilities and accused Kyiv of attacking equipment near one of its pipelines.

“Unfortunately, we see that for now there is no reciprocity on the part of the Kyiv regime,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The White House described the call between Trump and Putin as the first step in a “movement to peace” that Washington hopes will include a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea and eventually a full and lasting end to the fighting.

But there was no indication that Putin backed away from his conditions for a prospective peace deal, which are fiercely opposed by Kyiv.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said that Putin’s demands during the call with Trump would amount to “Ukrainian capitulation.”

“Putin is attempting to hold the temporary ceasefire proposal hostage in order to extract preemptive concessions ahead of formal negotiations to end the war,” the ISW said in an analysis of readouts from the calls.

Stubb called the discussions between Putin and Trump a step in the right direction, but the Finnish president said Russia needs to end its aggression.

“There are only two ways to respond to the proposal of the president of the United States: It’s a yes or a no — no buts, no conditions,” Stubb said. “Ukraine accepted a ceasefire without any forms of conditions. If Russia refuses to agree, we need to increase our efforts to strengthen Ukraine and ratchet up pressure on Russia to convince them to come to the negotiating table.”

The White House also confirmed that technical experts from the U.S., Ukraine and Russia would gather in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss implementing the partial ceasefire that Trump and Putin agreed to in their call this week.

It was not immediately clear if the U.S. would meet together or separately with the Ukrainian and Russian officials.

Zelenskyy rejected Putin’s key condition that Western allies stop providing military aid and intelligence to Ukraine. He said doing so would endanger lives if citizens were blind to incoming air raids, and lead to the continuation of the war.

“I don’t think anybody should make any concessions in terms of helping Ukraine, but rather, assistance to Ukraine should be increased,” Zelenskyy said. “This will be a signal that Ukraine is ready for any surprises from the Russians.”

The New York Times contributed.