LONDON — President Donald Trump stated he spoke to Russian President Putin on Wednesday, describing their name as “good” however “not a dialog that may result in fast Peace.”
In a publish on Fact Social, Trump stated the leaders mentioned Ukraine’s large-scale drone operation that focused Russian army airfields on Sunday and “numerous different assaults” throughout their roughly 65-minute name.
“President Putin did say, and really strongly, that he must reply to the current assault on the airfields,” Trump stated.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Could 28, 2025 and President Donald Trump in Washington, April 20, 2025.
AP/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
With U.S.-brokered Ukraine-Russia peace talks nonetheless floundering regardless of one other spherical of negotiations in Istanbul on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his prime officers are making use of extra strain on Trump to extend the price of what they see as Russian obfuscation.
Trump returned to workplace in January having vowed to finish the conflict in 24 hours. However months of failed talks — with Kyiv and Moscow clearly nonetheless far aside on their peace calls for — have left the president and his administration publicly annoyed.
Trump has threatened each — Ukraine with the withdrawal of all support and Russia with extra sanctions — with punishment if his peace-making efforts fail. Each Ukraine and Russia have sought to border the opposite as the primary obstacle to a peace deal.
Ukraine aligned itself with Trump’s Could attraction for a full 30-day ceasefire, a proposal Putin has refused. Within the weeks since, Zelenskyy has pushed Trump to fulfill Russia’s obstinance with sanctions.
Firefighters work on the website of the Russian drone strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on June 4, 2025.
Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters
Following Monday’s talks — which lasted simply over an hour — Kyiv launched into a renewed push.
“I wish to thank all Individuals, all Europeans who help this strategy of pressuring Russia into peace — this can be very essential,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Tuesday night time, following the most recent spherical of lethal Russian drone and missile assaults on his nation — and after two headline-grabbing assaults by the Safety Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet and the Kerch Strait Bridge.
“Putin doesn’t change his habits when he doesn’t worry the implications of his actions,” Zelenskyy added. “Russia should really feel what conflict actually means. Russia should bear the losses from the conflict. They need to actually really feel that persevering with the conflict may have devastating penalties for them.”
The 2 sides did conform to additional prisoner exchanges throughout the newest Istanbul talks. However each Ukrainian International Minister Andrii Sybiha and Andriy Yermak — the influential head of Zelenskyy’s presidential workplace — pushed again on the notion that the negotiations moved the needle towards a long-lasting ceasefire settlement.
Yermak stated in a publish to social media that he spoke with Trump’s Particular Envoy Steve Witkoff concerning the talks, telling him, “Russia’s place stays unconstructive.”
“I emphasised that Russia is stalling and manipulating the negotiation course of in an try to keep away from American sanctions and has no real intention of ceasing hostilities,” Yermak stated. “Solely robust sanctions can compel Russia to have interaction in critical negotiations.
Sybiha stated Russia “has not responded to our doc outlining Ukraine’s imaginative and prescient for ending the conflict,” in a publish on X summarizing Ukraine’s official conclusions from the second spherical of talks.
“As a substitute of responding to our constructive proposals in Istanbul, the Russian aspect handed a set of outdated ultimatums that don’t transfer the scenario any nearer to true peace,” he stated.
“This contradicts Russia’s earlier guarantees, together with to america, that it could put ahead one thing life like and doable this week in Istanbul,” Sybiha added, additionally calling for brand spanking new U.S. sanctions on Moscow.
Ukrainian servicemen put together to fireplace a BM-21 Grad a number of rocket launch system towards Russian troops in Donetsk area, Ukraine, on June 3, 2025.
Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/Reuters
Trump can be dealing with strain at residence. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham — lengthy influential in advising the president’s international coverage — is amongst these pushing a sanctions invoice by the Senate that might slap 500% tariffs on any nation that buys Moscow’s power merchandise.
On Sunday, following a go to to Kyiv with Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Graham wrote on X, “Russia indiscriminately kills males, girls and youngsters. It is time for the world to behave decisively in opposition to Russia’s aggression by holding China and others accountable for getting low cost Russian oil that props up Putin’s conflict machine.”
The Kremlin urged persistence. “It might be mistaken to anticipate any fast choices or breakthroughs right here,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov informed reporters on Tuesday of the most recent talks. “However work is ongoing. Sure agreements have been reached in Istanbul, and they’re essential. Certainly, at the start, it’s about folks. These agreements might be applied.”
However Dmitry Medvedev — the previous Russian president and prime minister now serving because the deputy chairman of the nation’s Safety Council — gave a darker learn on the negotiations. The talks, he wrote on Telegram, “are usually not meant to attain a compromise peace primarily based on some imaginary and unrealistic circumstances invented by others, however slightly to safe our swift victory and the whole destruction” of Zelenskyy’s authorities.
In the meantime, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov informed journalists on Wednesday that Tuesday’s explosion on the Kerch Strait Bridge induced no harm, after the Safety Service of Ukraine (SBU) claimed accountability for the most recent assault on the construction.
“Effectively, there was an explosion, nothing was broken, the bridge is working, the Kyiv regime continues its makes an attempt to assault the objects of peaceable infrastructure,” Peskov stated at a briefing. “The Russian aspect takes applicable precautions.”
The SBU stated it attacked the bridge — which hyperlinks occupied Crimea to Russia’s Krasnodar Krai area and is a outstanding image of Moscow’s management over the occupied peninsula — with underwater explosives early on Tuesday, in an operation that “lasted a number of months.”
The SBU claimed that the explosion “severely broken” the “underwater helps of the piers.” The official account for the bridge stated the construction was “quickly closed” after the explosion.
This video seize taken from a handout footage launched by the Ukrainian Safety Service on June 3, 2025, allegedly reveals the explosion of the Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Crimea with Russia.
Handout/UKRAINIAN SECURITY SERVICE/AFP v
The long-range strikes which have unsettled Trump continued. Ukraine’s air power reported 95 Russian drones launched into the nation in a single day, of which 61 have been shot down or neutralized. Impacts have been recorded in seven areas, the air power stated.
Russia’s Protection Ministry, in the meantime, stated its forces downed seven Ukrainian drones in a single day.
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine issued a safety alert Wednesday warning Individuals concerning the rising depth of Russian assaults. The embassy urged U.S. residents to “train applicable warning” and be ready to “shelter instantly” if an air alert is introduced.
ABC Information’ Ellie Kaufman, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Nataliia Popova and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
