Trump flags Russian retaliation, plays down peace talks after Putin call

Washington: US President Donald Trump has played down the chances of successful peace talks in the Russia-Ukraine war after a phone call with Vladimir Putin, and foreshadowed Russian retaliation to the weekend’s surprise Ukrainian attacks on Russian air bases.

In a social media post on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), Trump said he spoke with the Russian president for an hour and 15 minutes in a conversation that canvassed recent attacks by both sides, and the prospect of a nuclear Iran.

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

Trump offered no commentary on, or condemnation of, those plans in the TruthSocial post, and exhibited no frustration about the failure to progress peace talks. He went on to say the Russian leader agreed Iran could not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, and hinted at co-operation.

“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,” Trump said.

Donald Trump said he spoke with Russia’s Vladimir Putin for an hour and 15 minutes.Credit: AP, Bloomberg

“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!”

Separately, Putin and Pope Leo also had their first telephone conversation during which they discussed the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin and the Vatican said on Thursday AEST.

“The Pope made an appeal for Russia to take a gesture that would favour peace, emphasising the importance of dialogue to create positive contacts between the parties and seek solutions to the conflict,” said Holy See Press Office director Matteo Bruni.

The pair also discussed the ongoing efforts for prisoner exchanges. “Pope Leo … underlined how shared Christian values can be a light that helps to seek peace, defend life, and pursue genuine religious freedom,” Bruni said.

The Kremlin said: “During the exchange of views on the situation in Ukraine, Putin reiterated his interest in achieving peace through political and diplomatic means and stressed that for a final, fair and comprehensive resolution of the crisis it is necessary to eliminate its root causes.”

The phone calls come days after Ukraine unleashed a spectacular drone attack on Russian air bases and aircraft deep inside Russian territory, destroying or damaging what Ukrainian officials said was billions of dollars worth of enemy equipment.

Codenamed “Spider’s Web”, the operation took more than a year and a half to plan and was personally overseen by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who praised the “absolutely brilliant” outcome.

The apparent wreckage of a TU-22 bomber besides other intact TU-22 aircraft at Belaya air base.Credit: Maxar

Reuters reported on Thursday AEST that an American assessment of the drone attack indicated as many as 20 Russian warplanes had been hit, with about 10 of them destroyed, citing two US officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

That estimate is lower than the one Zelensky initially offered when he said 41 Russian aircraft had been struck and about half were too damaged to be repaired. Reuters could not independently verify the numbers from Kyiv or the US, which was not given any notice ahead of the attack.

Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC show Belaya (left) on May 17 and (right) on June 4, after the drone attack.Credit: AP

Still, the US officials described the attack as highly significant, with one of them cautioning that it could drive Moscow to a far more severe negotiating position in the US-brokered talks to end more than three years of war.

On Wednesday, shortly before Trump posted about his call with Putin, Zelensky said he was ready to meet Putin, as well as Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss a potential memorandum – as opposed to what he characterised as a Russian “ultimatum” for a ceasefire issued on Monday (Tuesday AEST).

“Russians are behaving like thimble-riggers. They do not want deescalation or an end to the war. They pretend to be constructive, but their games are only aimed at delaying US sanctions,” Zelensky said in a statement on X.

He proposed a meeting starting as soon as Monday, at any workable location, and a concurrent ceasefire, and said he would be grateful if Trump supported the idea.

“When we meet it will become clear if there is will for de-escalation. If no, the ceasefire will end on the same day,” Zelensky said.

Putin, however, showed no willingness to meet with Zelensky, 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 meetings be conducted in such circumstances? What shall we talk about?” Putin asked in a video call with top Russian officials.

Trump gave no explicit indication in the account of his phone call with Putin as to whether they had discussed such a meeting, or a similar initiative.

Their conversation came as Congress grows increasingly impatient to impose additional sanctions on Russia, including 500 per cent tariffs on US trading partners who buy Russian oil. Legislation to that effect has the support of at least 82 members of the 100-seat US Senate.

A Ukrainian delegation was due to meet senators on Wednesday, local time, to discuss the sanctions bill.

“It’s a pivotal moment in Ukraine and crunch time for the Senate on this bill,” Democratic senator and bill co-sponsor Richard Blumenthal told Politico.

Eddie Fishman, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International Affairs, argued in a new essay for Foreign Affairs that Trump’s Russia policy was “at a dead end” and it was time to pull the trigger on sanctions.

Rather than extreme tariffs on third countries, Fishman proposed sanctions enabling them to gradually reduce imports of Russian oil and pay the money into escrow accounts that could only be used for humanitarian goods. This was based on a sanctions regime Barack Obama used against Iran.

“Congress is ready. Europe is frustrated. Oil markets are well-supplied,” Fishman said on X. “The stars are aligned for Trump to gain real leverage over Putin. The question isn’t whether oil sanctions can work. It’s whether Trump will play the cards he’s been dealt.”

Meanwhile, new Ukrainian drone attacks hit energy infrastructure in Russian-held parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in southern Ukraine on Thursday AEST, cutting power to tens of thousands of residents, Russia-installed officials said.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-appointed governor of Kherson region, said the attacks had left 97 settlements with some 68,000 residents without power.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russia-appointed head of adjacent Zaporizhzhia region, gave no figures but said energy sites were under attack and 10 drones had been downed.

Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian-held parts of the two regions cut power to some 700,000 people earlier this week, but emergency crews restored electricity quickly.

With AP, Reuters

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