Trump says Putin swears Russia's response to Ukrainian drone attacks – country
U.S. President Donald Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin told him “very strongly” on Wednesday's call that he would respond to Ukraine's weekend drone attack on Russian airports as the deadlock delayed the war, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Russia's ceasefire proposal.
The U.S. president said in a social media post that his long appeal with Putin was “a good conversation, but not a conversation that would lead to an immediate peaceful one.”
This is the first bold attack by Trump in Ukraine within Russia. According to the White House, the United States did not notify the action in advance. The United States has led recent diplomatic efforts to prevent a full-scale invasion, which began on February 24, 2022.
Trump did not say in his social media post how he responded to Putin’s commitment to responding to the attacks on Ukraine, but his post shows that Trump has expressed frustration with his Russian counterparts in recent weeks of the extension of the war.
Trump has repeatedly promised to end the war quickly, even saying that he would finish the war before he was sworn in. But he has lost patience with Putin in recent weeks, publicly begging him to stop fighting, and even said late last month that the Russian leader was “absolutely crazy”.
However, Trump has not pledged to support the bipartisan sanctions Putin.
Trump said on the conference call, Trump had his first well-known conversation with Putin since May 19, and they also discussed Iran's nuclear program.
It is not clear whether Trump plans to talk to Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy removes Russian plans and pushes for negotiations
The Ukrainian leader earlier Wednesday dismissed Russia's ceasefire plan and updated his call for direct negotiations with Putin to break the deadlock of the war, which has been delayed for nearly 3 1/2 years.
However, Putin is reluctant to meet with Zelenskyy, speaking on Wednesday at what he said about Ukraine's recent “terrorist acts” on the Russian railway line in the Kursk and Bryansk regions.
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“How to do any such (summit) meeting in this case? What are we going to talk about?” Putin asked during a video call with top Russian officials.
He accused Ukraine of seeking a truce only to supplement its stock of Western weapons, recruit more soldiers, and prepare for new attacks like Kursk and Bryansk.
The two sides exchanged memorandums to clarify the conditions for a ceasefire in direct peace talks between their delegations in Istanbul on Monday, their second meeting in just two weeks. Zelenskyy had previously challenged Putin to meet in Türkiye, but Putin left.
Despite U.S.-led international diplomatic efforts to stop the fight, Russia and Ukraine have established an unlikely red line. The Kremlin's Istanbul proposal included a request from Kiev and its Western allies to see it as a festan.
“This document looks like spam”
Zelenskyy said the second round of negotiations in Istanbul is no different from the first meeting on May 16. Zelenskyy described the latest negotiations in Istanbul as “political performance” and “artificial diplomacy” aimed at stagnating time, delaying sanctions, and explaining that Russia and Russia are involved in dialogue.
Zelenskyy said in his first reaction to the Russian paper: “The last utterance they spoke at the time – now they just put them on paper… Honestly, this document looks like spam. Spam is meant to drown us and impress people that they are doing something.”
He added that the 2025 talks in Istanbul had the “same content and spirit” as the resultless negotiations held in Turkish cities in the early days of the war.
The Ukrainian leader said he saw little value in the ongoing negotiations of the current delegation. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov leads the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul, while Putin's aide Vladimir Medinsky leads the Russian team.
Zelenskyy said he hopes to cease fire with Russia and then possibly include Trump ahead of the summit meeting with Putin to remove obstacles to a peaceful solution.
“We are proposing … a ceasefire ahead of the leaders' summit,” Zelenskyy said in a media briefing in Kiev.
“Why should the ceasefire be before the leaders meet? Because if we meet and have no mutual understanding of each other, the willingness or vision for how to end this end, then the ceasefire will end on the same day. But if we see the real steps to prepare to continue the conversation and take the downgrade, then we will expand the ceasefire in our mediation,” he said. ”
Zelenskyy said Ukraine is preparing to meet at any time next Monday in places like Istanbul, the Vatican or Switzerland.
The Secretary of Defense stays
On Monday, the second round of peace talks between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul lasted for more than an hour and no progress was made in ending the war. They only agreed to exchange thousands of dead and seriously injured troops.
In addition, communication with new prisoners in Russia may occur over the weekend, Zelenskyy said.
The United States shows signs of staying away from conflict.
Defense Minister Pete Hegseth held a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, where the group coordinated military aid to Ukraine. This is the first time since the U.S. founded the group three years ago, the Pentagon chief has not participated with 50 other defense leaders.
An analysis released by the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday said the Kremlin hopes to disengage while avoiding further sanctions.
“Without serious pain, Putin will continue to delay peace negotiations, continue to fight and wait for the United States to walk away,” it said.
While negotiations were being negotiated, both sides carried out offensive military operations on the frontline of about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) and conducted profound strikes.
Ukraine's Security Agency on Wednesday provided more details about its spectacular weekend drone strike at a Russian air base and claimed that the air base had been destroyed or damaged 41 Russian aircraft, including strategic bombers.
The agency claims that the aircraft attacks include A-50, TU-95, TU-22, TU-160, AN-12 and IL-78 aircraft, adding that artificial intelligence helps guide drones thousands of kilometers (miles) from Ukraine.
It also said it sparked an explosion on Tuesday on the seafloor on the crucial transport environment between Russia and illegally annexed Crimea, claiming that it caused damage to the structure.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday there was no damage.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that its troops controlled another village in the northern part of Sumi, northern Ukraine, border with Russia. Putin announced on May 22 that the Russian army's goal is to establish a buffer zone that could help prevent cross-border attacks in Ukraine. Since then, the Russian Ministry of Defense claims that its troops have controlled nine Sumi villages.
Illia Novikov of Kiev, Ukraine, and Katie Marie Davies of Manchester, England contributed.
