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.

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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.”

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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.

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It was not clear if Trump also planned to speak with Zelenskyy. The White House did not respond to a message Wednesday afternoon.

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 3½ 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.

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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. 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.

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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.

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.

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.

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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 released more footage showing drones swooping under and over parked aircraft and featuring some planes burning. It also claimed the planes struck included A-50, Tu-95, Tu-22, Tu-160, An-12, and Il-78 aircraft, adding that the drones had highly automated capabilities and were partly piloted by an operator and partly by using artificial intelligence which flew the drone along a planned route in the event it lost signal.

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 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 .

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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.

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Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Chris Megerian in Washington, Emma Burrows in London, Nicole Winfield in Rome and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England contributed reporting.

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US President Donald Trump (left) had a phone conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on June 4. PHOTO: AFP

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin warned him “very strongly” in a call on June 4 that he would respond to Ukraine’s stunning attack on Russian airfields, adding that any immediate prospect of peace remained far off.

Kyiv’s daring mass drone strikes on June 1 destroyed several nuclear-capable bombers worth billions of dollars, and dominated the third call between the Russian and US presidents since Mr Trump returned to power.

Earlier, Mr Putin had appeared to rule out a ceasefire or any direct talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Turkey has suggested it could host such negotiations and invited Mr Trump, too.

“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” said Trump in a social media post. “President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”

The US leader added that during his call with Mr Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, launching a grinding war, they had “discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes” as well as other attacks “by both sides”.

The Kremlin described the call, which also focused on negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme, as “positive” and “productive.”

Mr Trump has repeatedly alarmed Kyiv and its allies in Europe and elsewhere by pivoting towards Mr Putin over the war, and he had a blazing Oval Office row with Mr Zelensky in February.

The US president has, however, also shown growing frustration with Mr Putin – last week calling him “crazy” – as Russia has continued attacks and derailed Mr Trump’s campaign pledge to end the war within 24 hours.

Mr Putin’s call with Mr Trump appeared to be part of a diplomatic offensive by the Russian leader, who discussed the Ukraine war with Pope Leo XIV in a telephone conversation on June 4.

The Kremlin said Mr Putin told the US-born pope he wanted peace through diplomacy but added that “the regime in Kyiv is betting on an escalation of the conflict and carrying out of acts of sabotage against civil infrastructure on Russian territory.”

Mr Putin earlier accused Ukraine of being behind “terrorist” attacks on bridges in its border regions over the weekend, including one that caused a train to derail, killing seven people.

He said any full ceasefire would just give Kyiv a chance to rearm.

Police officers working at the site of a Russian military strike in the Ukrainian city of Sumy on June 3. PHOTO: REUTERS

“Why reward them by giving them a break from the combat, which will be used to pump the regime with Western arms, to continue their forced mobilisation and to prepare different terrorist acts,” Mr Putin said, in a televised government meeting.

Ukraine has been pushing for an unconditional and immediate 30-day truce, issuing its latest proposal to Moscow at peace talks in Istanbul on June 2.

‘Ultimatum’

Mr Zelensky said earlier on June 4 that Russia had handed Ukraine an “ultimatum” and recycled old demands in Turkey, where the only concrete agreement was on a series of large-scale prisoner exchanges.

Moscow’s demands included Ukraine fully pulling out of four regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – that Russia claims to have annexed but does not have full control over.

More on this Topic Russia and Ukraine miles apart on peace terms

Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready “any day” for a meeting proposed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that would also include the US and Russian leaders.

The White House says Mr Trump is “open” to such a meeting.

More than three years into Russia’s invasion, which has cost tens of thousands of lives, the two sides have opened direct talks searching for a way to end what has become Europe’s largest conflict since World War II.

Ukrainian troops have been suffering months of setbacks on the battlefield as Russian forces steadily advance across key sectors of the sprawling front line.

Russia’s army said it had captured another village in Ukraine’s Sumy border region as it seeks to establish what it calls a “buffer zone” inside Ukrainian territory.

Kyiv has sought to gain assurances of continued support from Washington. On June 4, senior Zelensky aide Andriy Yermak met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington.

US President Donald Trump said he had enjoyed a “good conversation” with his Russian counterpart, but not one that would lead to immediate peace in Ukraine. SCREENSHOT: X

Iran ‘slow-walking’ on deal

The call between Mr Trump and Mr Putin showed that Washington and Moscow may be eying cooperation on another key global issue, however – Iran.

Mr Trump said he believed they were both “in agreement” that Iran could not have a nuclear weapon, and that time was running out for Tehran to respond to US offers of a deal.

“President Putin suggested that he will participate in the discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion,” Mr Trump said.

The US president added: “It is my opinion that Iran has been slow-walking their decision on this very important matter, and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time!”

Mr Putin told his Iranian counterpart, Mr Masoud Pezeshkian, that Moscow was ready to help advance talks on a nuclear deal, the Kremlin said on June 3.

But Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said earlier on June 4 that Washington’s proposal was against Tehran’s national interest, amid sharp differences over whether Tehran can continue to enrich uranium. AFP

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Speaking to his Cabinet Ministers, Putin said Ukraine is run by a “terrorist” regime that targets civilians and is still losing the war. He dismissed the idea of a meeting.

“How to hold such meetings in these conditions? What to talk about? Who even negotiates with those who bet on terror, with terrorists?” he said, adding that “today they suffer one defeat after another on the battlefield. Apparently, we are dealing with people who not only lack any meaningful competence in anything, but also elementary political culture”.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations met on Monday to exchange terms for peace talks. Russia’s terms, made public after the meeting, repeated long-standing Kremlin demands to end the war, such as Ukraine surrendering more territory to Russia, promising not to enter any military alliances and accepting severe restrictions on the size of its military.

Ukraine’s memo called for an immediate unconditional ceasefire, the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, no international recognition of lands conquered by Russia and freedom for Ukraine to join Western organisations.

Zelenskyy said Russia’s demands were unacceptable.

“The Russians understood that this was an ultimatum and that the Ukrainian side, or no one, would take it seriously,” Zelenskyy told journalists in Kyiv. He added that if the demands had been made public before the meeting in Istanbul, Ukrainian officials “would have been in their full rights” not to attend.

One of the only results of the talks was a prisoner exchange, which Zelenskyy said will take place this weekend, and some 500 Ukrainian troops would return home. Later, the two sides will exchange the corpses of fallen service members, but this will take longer to allow for proper identification of the bodies.

At the weekend, Ukraine took responsibility for a series of drone attacks against far-flung Russian airfields that disabled several Russian strategic bombers in a shocking attack against assets believed to be far out of range of Ukrainian weapons.

Two bridges also collapsed in the Bryansk and Kursk regions in incidents the Russians are calling terrorist attacks. There were also explosions on the Crimean Bridge connecting the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula with Russia.

Despite these Ukrainian successes, Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre warned that, rather than bringing Putin to the negotiating table, they would instead inspire him to escalate the conflict even further.

“Based on years – now decades – of observing Putin’s decision-making, I believe such attacks will only reinforce his determination to dismantle the Ukrainian state in its current form,” she wrote on X. “He will respond by becoming more hardline and less compliant.”

In addition to Russia’s nightly drone and missile strikes, its forces have been gaining ground in the northeastern Sumy region, taking a number of villages.

Zelenskyy dismissed the recent Russian advances in Sumy as “nothing new” and said that Russian forces “were not achieving any success”. He maintained that Ukrainian forces were well aware of and prepared for the attacks.

Analysis: Huge potential for smoke and mirrors in Trump-inspired defence spending goal

By Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor

The UK and its NATO allies are expected to agree to a Donald Trump-inspired pledge to spend 5% of GDP on defence and related areas at a summit this month – but watch out for the fudge.

The key figure – that is not flaky – is a likely new target to increase funding on defence to 3.5% of GDP by the 2030s up from 2%.

An extra 1.5% of GDP for defence-related areas is not yet very well defined, which means huge potential for smoke and mirrors and accounting tricks.

Mark Rutte, the head of NATO, has apparently set a timeframe for member states to meet the uplift by 2032 but the UK seems to be wanting expenditure to rise over a ten-year period.

This is what happened in 2014 when David Cameron, as prime minister, hosted the NATO summit in Wales and pushed member states to agree to hit the 2% spending goal by 2024.

The US president is demanding allies go much further now.

That is why Rutte has spent months trying to navigate the gap between what Trump wants and what European allies can deliver.

He knows that unless NATO’s 31 other member states step up, there is a chance the American leader will walk away in what would be a catastrophe for the alliance and for European security.

But the NATO chief, a former Dutch prime minister, also understands the reality of European politics. His country has yet even to meet the 2% defence spending target.

That seems to be why he has tried to make the increase more palatable by splitting it up.

The defence chunk looks very military, while the other bit, less so.

A senior defence source told me the goal to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence will come with a new definition for what can be included in NATO expenditure accounting tables.

The rules are going to be stricter, which means no more padding out the data by adding in money spent on stuff that is not strictly defence.

That will be uncomfortable for the UK Treasury – but a big win for the Ministry of Defence.

The source said 0.2% of Britain’s current GDP defence spend will fall foul of the new rules.

This means, under the new ambition, the UK will actually need to raise core defence spending from 2.1% of GDP to 3.5% (a 1.4% uplift) rather than starting at 2.3%.

As for the 1.5% part on defence-related areas, this neatly enables allies to meet the magic 5% mark demanded by Trump, but without the money all having to go on the military, which would have been a much harder sell to the European public.

The source told me that a definition for what will be included in this bucket has not yet been agreed.

Rutte has indicated it can include infrastructure projects such as building roads, railways, airports, seaports.

They are all things that would be useful to the public in everyday life, but also crucial to mobilise the armed forces at speed in a crisis.

The vagueness of the 1.5% spending goal means perhaps the UK could even lump in the £15bn that Rachel Reeves has said the government will spend on transport projects.

Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but acknowledged peace with Ukraine is not on the immediate horizon.

On the call that lasted about one hour and 15 minutes, Trump disclosed they discussed the recent drone attacks by Ukraine on Russia’s air bases.

Kyiv delivered a devastating blow to the Russian air force on Sunday and Putin is now plotting revenge.

‘It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace,’ admitted Trump.

The president also stated that Putin told him he plans to retaliate against Ukraine after the recent attacks.

‘President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,’ Trump disclosed, without details about whether he pushed back on the Russian leader.

Trump has been vocal about wanting to end all fighting and bombing between the two nations immediately as the death toll continues to rise in the now years-long conflict.

‘We also discussed Iran, and the fact that time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons, which must be made quickly! I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement.’

‘President Putin suggested that he will participate in the discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion. It is my opinion that Iran has been slow-walking their decision on this very important matter, and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time!’

On the call that lasted about one hour and 15 minutes, Trump disclosed they discussed the recent drone attack by Ukraine on Russia’s planes

‘President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,’ Trump disclosed

The Russian tyrant has stayed out of sight since the attacks on multiple air bases in Ukraine’s audacious Operation Spiderweb – a top-secret mission some 18 months in the making, showing off Ukraine’s capability to stagger the Russian invasion.

But an insider warned that Putin ‘will hit back at Ukraine’ while also ‘avenging his underlings who allowed this humiliation to happen.’

Putin’s revenge reportedly includes stockpiling a massive contingent of battle tanks and ammunition.

The call between the two leaders came the day after the White House announced Trump will attend the annual NATO meeting at the end of June.

The president will also travel to Canada in the next few weeks to attend the G7.

The Russian-Ukraine war is expected to be a heavy topic of conversation at both events.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to attend the G7 meeting.

Trump’s post did mention any possibility of a meeting to discuss the peace process. He has sought to bring Zelensky and Putin together.

But, on Tuesday, the Kremlin dismissed the likelihood of a trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelensky taking place in the near future.

‘Well, frankly speaking, unlikely [that it will happen] in the near future,’ Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Russian state media outlet TASS.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations met for the second time in person on Monday in Turkey.

There was no breakthrough on peace talks but the two sides did agree to more prisoner exchanges.

Zelensky has pushed for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, which Putin has not agreed to.

A satellite image shows destroyed aircrafts in the aftermath of a drone strike at the Olenya air base, Murmansk region, Russia

The two sides are far apart in their asks for a peace deal.

The Kremlin wants Ukraine to vow not to be a part of any military alliance (such as NATO); restrictions on the size of its military; wants to keep their occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia; and wants Russian to be Ukraine’s official language.

The Ukraine wants no restrictions on the size of its military; war reparations and that the international community to refuse to recognize Russia’s occupation of parts of Ukraine.

Trump and Putin spoke two days after Ukraine launched a massive drone strike on Russia.

It was severe hit for the Kremlin with as many as 20 Russian strategic aircraft destroyed or severely damaged, limiting Putin’s ability to conduct long-range attacks.

One U.S. defense official told the New York Times the attack showed Ukraine’s ability to strike nearly anywhere in Russia, and to destroy warplanes costing $100 million or more with drones with price tags as low as $600.