WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin told him “very strongly” in a phone call Wednesday that he will respond to Ukraine’s weekend drone attack on Russian airfields as the deadlock over the war drags on.
Trump said in a social media post that his lengthy call with Putin “was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.”
It’s the first time Trump has weighed in on Ukraine’s daring attack inside Russia. The US did not have advance notice of the operation, according to the White House, a point Trump emphasized during the call with Putin, according to Putin’s foreign affairs adviser.
The call comes as the US leads a diplomatic push to broker a peace deal following nearly 3½ years of war.
Trump, in his post, did not say how he reacted to Putin’s promise to respond to Ukraine’s attack, but it showed none of the frustration that Trump has expressed with his Russian counterpart in recent weeks over his prolonging of the war.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, said at a briefing that the two leaders characterized the call as “positive and quite productive.”
“I believe it was useful for Trump to hear our assessments of what happened,” Ushakov said, noting that the discussion of the attacks was one of the key topics.
Zelensky responds to Trump-Putin call
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media: “Many have spoken with Russia at various levels. But none of these talks have brought a reliable peace, or even stopped the war. Unfortunately, Putin feels impunity.”
The Ukrainian leader urged more pressure on Russia and said that Putin’s planned response “means, that with every new strike, with every delay of diplomacy, Russia is giving the finger to the entire world — to all those who still hesitate to increase pressure on it.”
The sentiment was echoed by top Zelensky adviser Andrii Yermak, who said at a briefing in Washington that Russia understands strength and doesn’t have the political will to end the war.
But that “does not mean Ukraine closed the door to continue the negotiations,” said Yermak, who was part of a Ukrainian delegation that met with lawmakers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and other officials in the US this week.
Trump has repeatedly promised to end the war quickly but lost patience in recent weeks, publicly pleading with Putin to stop fighting and even saying the Russian leader “has gone absolutely CRAZY.”
Trump, however, has not committed to backing a bipartisan push to further sanction Russia.
The call was Trump’s first known talk with Putin since May 19. They also discussed, according to Trump and Ushakov, Iran’s nuclear program and the possibility of Russia engaging in talks with Tehran.
It was not clear if Trump also planned to speak with Zelensky. The White House did not respond to a message Wednesday afternoon.
Zelensky and Putin weigh in on the state of talks
The Ukrainian leader earlier Wednesday dismissed Russia’s conditions for a ceasefire as “an ultimatum” and renewed his call for direct talks with Putin to break the stalemate.
Putin, however, showed no willingness to meet with Zelensky, expressing anger Wednesday about what he said were Ukraine’s recent “terrorist acts” on Russian rail lines in the Kursk and Bryansk regions on the countries’ border.
“How can any such (summit) meetings be conducted in such circumstances? What shall we talk about?” Putin asked in a video call with top Russian officials.
Putin accused Ukraine of seeking a truce only to replenish its stockpiles of Western arms, recruit more soldiers and prepare new attacks.
He also spoke Wednesday to Pope Leo XIV, who has promised to make ” every effort ” to help end the war.
Leo urged Putin to make a gesture that would promote peace and stressed the importance of dialogue, the Vatican said.
Russia and Ukraine had exchanged memos setting out their conditions for a ceasefire for discussion Monday in Istanbul, the second direct meeting in just over two weeks.
Russia and Ukraine have established red lines that make a quick deal unlikely. The Kremlin’s proposal contained a list of demands that Kyiv and its Western allies see as nonstarters.
The second round of talks lasted just over an hour and made no progress on ending the war, with the sides agreeing only to swap thousands of their dead and seriously wounded troops.
Also, a new prisoner exchange with Russia could take place over the weekend, Zelensky said.
He described the latest negotiations as “a political performance” and “artificial diplomacy” designed to stall for time, delay sanctions and convince the United States that Russia is engaged in dialogue.
Military strikes continue during diplomacy
In tandem with the talks, both sides have kept up military actions along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.
Ukraine’s Security Service gave more details Wednesday about its spectacular weekend drone strike on Russian air bases, which it claimed destroyed or damaged 41 aircraft, including strategic bombers.
It released more footage showing drones swooping under and over parked aircraft and featuring some planes burning. It claimed the planes struck included A-50, Tu-95, Tu-22, Tu-160, An-12, and Il-78 aircraft. It said the drones had highly automated capabilities, partly piloted by an operator and partly by artificial intelligence that flew the devices along a planned route in case the signal was lost.
The drones were not fully autonomous and a “human is still choosing what target to hit,” said Caitlin Lee, a drone warfare expert at RAND, a think thank.
Ukraine’s security agency said it also set off an explosion Tuesday on the seabed beneath the Kerch Bridge, a vital transport link between Russia and illegally annexed Crimea, claiming it caused damage to the structure.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there was no damage.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its troops have taken control of another village in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, on the border with Russia.
Putin announced on May 22 that Russian troops aim to create a buffer zone that might help prevent Ukrainian cross-border attacks. Since then, Russia claims it has taken control of nine Sumy villages.
