Trump says Putin told him ‘very strongly' he will ‘have to respond' to Ukraine drone strikes in hour-long call
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Russia's Vladimir Putin has informed him that his forces will respond to Ukraine's brazen and devastating attack on Russian airfields by a fleet of small suicide drones over the weekend.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said he had spoken with the Russian leader for an hour and 15 minutes and described the call as 'a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.'
'We discussed the attack on Russia's docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides ... President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,' Trump said.
The president also stated that he and Putin had discussed ongoing nuclear deal negotiations between the U.S. and Tehran, and said 'time is running out' for Tehran to come to an agreement 'which must be made quickly,' and revealed that he believes that Putin agrees with his stance on the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
Trump added that 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 slowwalking their decision on this very important matter, and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time!' he said.
The American leader's social media post is his first mention of the audacious strike on Russian bombers by Ukraine's security services since they were first reported days ago.
The attack, dubbed Operation Spiderweb, by Ukrainian authorities, was carried out by the SBU and destroyed more than 40 Russian bombers, a significant portion of Moscow's strategic bombing capability.
Ukraine has claimed the attack — a homegrown operation in which drones were concealed in false compartments within prefabricated sheds, smuggled into Russia, then launched en masse simultaneously many thousands of miles apart – and many thousands of miles behind enemy lines — destroyed 41 Russian aircraft, causing $7bn worth of damage to long-range bombers that carried the cruise missiles Putin has been using against Ukraine.
Videos of the attack on one airfield in Belaya revealed aircraft bursting into flames, as drones, which may have been autonomous or semi-autonomous, dived onto planes sitting on the tarmac.
Days later, a massive underwater bomb targeted a key bridge linking occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland.
The two daring raids by Ukrainian special forces have stunned the Kremlin, bolstered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and sent shockwaves through defense departments around the world.
But Trump, who rarely misses a chance to opine on any particular topic, had remained silent for days.
It was a rare period of reticence for a leader who once claimed he could bring about a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv within 24 hours, and who infamously berated Zelensky by telling him during an infamous Oval Office showdown in February that he didn't 'have the cards' to keep up the fight against Russia.
When The Independent asked the White House if Zelensky might have had some cards up his sleeve that the president hadn't known about during a press briefing on Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump 'remains positive at the progress" the two sides have made in U.S.-brokered peace talks that just ended in Istanbul, Turkey.
'But he also is a realist, and he realizes these are two countries that are at war and have been for a long time because of his predecessor's weakness and incompetence,' she added.
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