U.S. President Donald Trump said that 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 and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismisses Russia’s ceasefire proposal.
The U.S. president 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 U.S. did not have advance notice of the operation, according to the White House. The U.S. has led a recent diplomatic push to stop the full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.
Trump, in his social media post, did not say how he reacted to Putin’s promise to respond to Ukraine’s attack, but his post showed none of the frustration that Trump has expressed with his Russian counterpart in recent weeks over his prolonging of the war.
Trump repeatedly promised to end the war quickly, and even said he would accomplish it before he was sworn in. But he lost patience with Putin in recent weeks, publicly pleading with him to stop fighting and even said late last month that the Russian leader “has gone absolutely CRAZY.”
Trump, however, has not committed to backing a bipartisan push to sanction Putin.
During the call, Trump’s first known talk with Putin since May 19, they also discussed Iran’s nuclear program, according to Trump.
It was not clear if Trump also planned to speak with Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy brushes off Russian plan and pushes for talks
The Ukrainian leader earlier Wednesday dismissed Russia’s ceasefire plan as “an ultimatum” and renewed his call for direct talks with Putin to break the stalemate over the war, which has dragged on for nearly 3 1/2 years.
Putin, however, showed no willingness to meet with Zelenskyy, 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.
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“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.
He accused Ukraine of seeking a truce only to replenish its stockpiles of Western arms, recruit more soldiers and prepare new attacks like those in Kursk and Bryansk.
Both sides exchanged memorandums setting out their conditions for a ceasefire for discussion at Monday’s direct peace talks between delegations in Istanbul, their second meeting in just over two weeks. Zelenskyy had previously challenged Putin to meet him in Turkey, but Putin stayed away.
Russia and Ukraine have established red lines that make a quick deal unlikely, despite a U.S.-led international diplomatic push to stop the fighting. The Kremlin’s Istanbul proposal contained a list of demands that Kyiv and its Western allies see as nonstarters.
‘This document looks like spam’
Zelenskyy said that the second round of talks in Istanbul was no different from the first meeting on May 16. Zelenskyy described the latest negotiations in Istanbul 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.
“The same ultimatums they voiced back then — now they just put them on paper … Honestly, this document looks like spam. It’s spam meant to flood us and create the impression that they’re doing something,” Zelenskyy said in his first reaction to the Russian document.
He added that the 2025 talks in Istanbul carry “the same content and spirit” as the fruitless negotiations held in the Turkish city in the early days of the war.
The Ukrainian leader said that he sees little value in continuing talks at the current level of delegations. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov led the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul, while Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Putin, headed the Russian team.
Zelenskyy said he wants a ceasefire with Russia before a possible summit meeting with Putin, possibly also including Trump, in an effort to remove obstacles to a peace settlement.
“We are proposing … a ceasefire before a leaders’ summit,” with the U.S. acting as a mediator, Zelenskyy told a media briefing in Kyiv.
“Why a ceasefire before the leaders’ meeting? Because if we meet and there is no mutual understanding, no willingness or vision on how to end this, then the ceasefire would end that same day. But if we see readiness to continue the dialogue and take real steps toward de-escalation, then the ceasefire would be extended with U.S. mediation guarantees,” he said.
Ukraine is ready to meet at any time from next Monday at a venue such as Istanbul, the Vatican or Switzerland, Zelenskyy said.
U.S. defense secretary stays away
A second round of peace talks on Monday between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul lasted just over an hour and made no progress on ending the war. They agreed only to swap thousands of their dead and seriously wounded troops.
Also, a new prisoner exchange with Russia could take place over the weekend, Zelenskyy said.
The U.S. has shown signs of distancing itself from the conflict.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth skipped a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday of an international group coordinating military aid to Ukraine. It was the first time America’s Pentagon chief didn’t attend alongside 50 other defense leaders since the U.S. created the group three years ago.
An analysis published Tuesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said the Kremlin is hoping for U.S. disengagement while avoiding further sanctions.
“Without serious pain, Putin will continue to drag the peace talks out, keep fighting, and wait for the United States to walk away,” it said.
In tandem with the talks, both sides have kept up offensive military actions along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and carried out deep strikes.
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 Russian aircraft, including strategic bombers.
The agency claimed the planes struck included A-50, Tu-95, Tu-22, Tu-160, An-12, and Il-78 aircraft, adding that artificial intelligence helped guide the drones thousands of kilometers (miles) from Ukraine.
It also said it set off an explosion on 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.
But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that 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’s Ministry of Defense claims its forces have taken control of nine Sumy villages.
Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England contributed.
