Latest news with #PutinTrumpCall
The National
2 days ago
- Business
- The National
Putin could participate in Iran talks and will retaliate against Ukraine attack, Trump says
President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Wednesday, with the US leader saying the Russian President told him he wanted to participate in Iran nuclear talks and that he would retaliate against Ukraine's recent drone attack. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said that the phone call lasted more than hour, and that the two leaders agreed Iran could not have a nuclear weapon. "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. "Time is running out on Iran's decision pertaining to nuclear weapons, which must be made quickly!" The post also said Iran has been "slow walking" talks. Iran and the US have been engaged in negotiations on a new deal that would put limits on its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. The US wants Iran to cease enriching uranium under a possible new deal, but Tehran says its programme is for civilian purposes and it has the right to continue. Earlier on Wednesday, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said a US proposal for a nuclear deal ran counter to Tehran's national interests, and that his country would not abandon uranium enrichment. Though Mr Trump said the call "was a good conversation", Mr Putin vowed to retaliate after Kyiv attacked Russian planes, and as a result, there would be no "immediate peace". Mr Putin "did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields", the US President wrote in his post. This is a stark turn around for Mr Trump, who took office this year on a promise to swiftly end the war in Ukraine. On Monday, delegates from Russia and Ukraine met briefly in Istanbul for a new round of talks. The day before, Kyiv unleashed a surprise drone offensive that hit Russian airfields across the country, taking out many heavy bombers and surveillance planes. The development comes after the White House on Tuesday confirmed that Mr Trump would attend the Nato summit this month, a meeting that is expected to be dominated by the war in Ukraine. The meetings will come shortly after Mr Trump is set to attend the Group of Seven leaders' summit in Canada, where allies are also expected to discuss ways to end the conflict. During a press briefing on Tuesday White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the President "remains positive at the progress" in the talks.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Trump says Putin told him in phone call he will respond to Ukraine's weekend drone attacks
By Kevin Liptak , CNN President Donald Trump said he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, but that the conversation would not yield an immediate end to the war in Ukraine. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Donald Trump in a phone call Wednesday that he was obligated to respond to Ukraine's weekend drone attack, Trump said, setting up a potential escalation in the conflict just as the US president hopes to broker an end to the war. The leaders' conversation was their second time speaking in a matter of weeks. Trump, who announced the call afterward in a post on Truth Social, made no mention of applying pressure on the Russian leader to agree to a ceasefire, or to calibrate his reprisal for Ukraine's audacious drone attack on Russian airfields over the weekend. Instead, Trump acknowledged the 75-minute conversation would not yield an immediate end to the war in Ukraine. "We discussed the attack on Russia's docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace." "President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields," he went on. Trump's matter-of-fact description of the call offered little evidence of advancement in his attempts to end the war. The president said last week he would be able to determine within two weeks whether Putin was serious about negotiating a ceasefire but has said little about how he would make that assessment. Meanwhile, there's been increasing pressure on Trump to levy additional sanctions against Russia, which he has so far resisted. Russian and Ukrainian officials met earlier this week in Istanbul for direct talks on ending the war, but both sides emerged without budging from their positions. Trump has taken credit for bringing the two sides together for face-to-face discussions. Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Putin briefed Trump on the latest round of talks on Wednesday. "As was emphasized, Ukraine tried to disrupt these negotiations by carrying out, on the direct orders of the Kyiv regime, targeted attacks on purely civilian targets, on the peaceful population," Ushakov said without specifying what attacks. "The leaders agreed to continue further contacts on the Ukrainian issue, including at the highest level and at other levels and through other channels," Ushakov said. Neither Trump nor the White House have publicly reacted to the weekend drone attacks beyond saying Ukrainian officials hadn't informed them of the planned assault ahead of time. Previously, Trump had lashed out at Putin after Russian aerial assaults on Ukrainian cities. New footage released Wednesday showed in stunning detail the surgical precession with which the Ukrainians struck their targets, damaging or destroying military aircraft that Moscow has been using to terrorize Ukrainian civilians with near daily aerial attacks. The video, released by the SBU, Ukraine's security agency, shows drones approaching dozens of planes of different types across several airfields as aircraft burn and explode around them. Ukrainian military officials said 41 Russian aircraft were hit, including strategic bombers and surveillance planes, with some destroyed and others damaged. The call came the same day US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was meeting in Washington with Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential office, to discuss the US posture amid the ongoing war. Rubio was expected to tell Yermak that the Ukrainian position - which the US sees as showing flexibility and a desire to get a ceasefire - was useful, a senior administration official said. But the secretary of state also planned to tell the Ukrainian official that dragging the US back into a Biden-era policy of unlimited military support for Ukraine won't happen, the official said. Yermak posted on social media after meeting with Rubio that they discussed the "urgent need to strengthen support for Ukraine's air defense." Ukraine's drone strikes deep inside Russia created a dramatic backdrop for the Washington meetings. The Trump administration has not moved to warn Ukraine against such attacks, US officials said, despite a belief that the strike increases the risk level. "People have to understand in the national security space: when you attack an opponent's part of their national survival system, which is their triad, the nuclear triad, that means your risk level goes up because you don't know what the other side is going to do. You're not sure," Keith Kellogg, special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, said during a Fox interview on Tuesday. In his readout of the Wednesday call, Trump also said he discussed Iran with Putin as he works to complete a nuclear agreement with Tehran. "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!" he wrote. "I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement." He said Putin would likely join discussions with Iran. "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 slowwalking their decision on this very important matter, and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time!" Trump wrote. Ushakov said the two leaders discussed the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, with Trump saying assistance from Russia "may be needed." - CNN
Sky News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Kremlin confident US will no longer 'indulge' Ukraine and EU after Trump's call to Putin
The mood in Russia is upbeat, bordering on triumphant, following Monday's phone call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. "The tone of the conversation was excellent," crows the headline in the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, quoting the American president's assessment of the conversation. Trump has "accepted the Russian formula" of "negotiations first, ceasefire after", the paper brags. Another, Komsomolskaya Pravda, runs with Putin 's description of the call as their main headline: "We are on the right track". According to the pro-Kremlin paper, Trump's approach shows the United States "is not going to indulge [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and Europe". Much of the coverage portrays the call as a battle for Trump's affections, with Russia emerging victorious despite the influence of "Western hawks". "[Trump] did not heed their requests," says Argumenty i Fakty, referring to Europe's calls for tougher sanctions. In Kommersant, there's talk of the two leaders sharing a "common language". The paper talks about how Trump has adopted "the most favourable position" for Moscow, which it claims "came as a complete surprise to the Western allies of the United States, nullifying their expectations". "In Kyiv and the camp of its Western allies, disappointment reigns over the "betrayal" of the United States", it gloats. There's no talk of the Kremlin stalling negotiations or dragging its feet. On the contrary, Putin's pledge to work with Ukraine on a memorandum for a future peace treaty is characterised as a logical next step. "The purpose of the conversation was to advance the peace process in Ukraine", the daily Vedomosti states soberly.
Russia Today
20-05-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
NATO chief comments on Putin-Trump phone call
The phone call on Monday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, marks a positive development and continues to restore communication, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said. Talking to reporters on Tuesday, Rutte said it was a 'good sign' that the conversation took place and welcomed Trump's 'leadership' in efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict. He added that the US president had 'broken the deadlock' from 'day one' since returning to office earlier this year. Rutte acknowledged there had been 'no discussions with the Russians' until January, when Trump began to 'open lines of communication' with Putin. Asked whether pressure on the Russian president should be increased, Rutte said, 'Let's be thankful that Americans are now taking this position, this leadership role.' He added it would not be helpful for him, as a NATO leader, to comment on every step in the process. Both Putin and Trump described their latest call as productive and encouraging. The US president said he expected progress on the Ukraine conflict within two weeks. According to a Kremlin statement, Putin thanked Trump for 'US support in resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.' Yury Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy aide, said the call was conducted in a tone of 'mutual respect,' with Trump expressing support for normalizing ties between Washington and Moscow. Putin said on Monday that he and Trump agreed that the next step should be a memorandum outlining principles and a timeline for a peace settlement in the Ukraine conflict. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the next day that 'there is and cannot be a deadline' for completing the document. Rutte's remarks come as NATO members seek ways to militarize and produce more weapons to be delivered to Ukraine. In March, the European Commission unveiled a plan to raise €800 billion ($896 billion) to 'rearm' the EU. The Trump administration has consistently demanded that European NATO states increase their annual military spending to 5% of GDP, calling the longstanding 2% target insufficient. Russian officials have condemned the steps being taken in Europe toward militarization, and dismissed claims that Moscow intends to attack either the EU or NATO. Moreover, Russia has expressed concern that, rather than supporting the US peace initiatives for the Ukraine conflict, the EU and UK are instead gearing up for war with Russia.
LBCI
19-05-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
Putin says held 'useful' call with Trump on Ukraine: Russian state media
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he held a "useful" call with U.S. leader Donald Trump on resolving the conflict in Ukraine. "It was very informative and very open and overall, in my opinion, very useful," Putin told Russian media after the call, saying it lasted "more than two hours." AFP
