WASHINGTON — 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, a point Trump emphasized during the call with Putin, according to a Putin’s foreign affairs adviser.
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.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, said at a briefing that the two leaders characterized the call as “positive and quite productive,” and reaffirmed their readiness to stay in touch.
“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 points in the conversation. He didn’t respond to a question about what the Russian response to the attacks could be.
Zelenskyy later said in a post 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 to be put 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.”
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.
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 as the U.S. pushes it to abandon its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
It was not clear if Trump also planned to speak with Zelenskyy. The White House did not respond to a message Wednesday afternoon.
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.
“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 like those in Kursk and Bryansk.
Putin also spoke Wednesday to Pope Leo XIV, who has promised to make “ every effort “ to help end the war.
During the call, Leo urged Putin to make a gesture that would promote peace and stressed the importance of dialogue, according to the Vatican.
Russia and Ukraine 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.
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