Russian President Vladimir Putin told his US counterpart Donald Trump on Wednesday that Kremlin will respond to Ukraine’s attacks on its airfields over the weekend.
In a phone conversation that lasted more than an hour, Putin admitted that the peace talks would not lead to “immediate peace” between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaking after a phone call with the Russian leader, Trump said: "President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields."
Trump acknowledged that the phone 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. “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
The phone call between the two leaders marked the first since Ukraine’s surprise operation that destroyed over forty strategic bombers across Russia on 1 June. Codenamed “Spiderweb”, the operation involved strikes on targets in four Russian military airfields with smuggled drones. Ukraine said it struck nuclear-capable long-range bombers.
Trump told Putin in the phone call that Washington was not warned in advance of the attack, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said.
Donald Trump has made series of comments indicating his openness to make a policy shift over Russia. Last week Trump gave Putin a deadline to prove he was serious about ending the war in Ukraine. “We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not, and if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently, but it will take about a week and a half to two weeks,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. Last month, Trump accused Putin of “playing with fire” following Russia’s deadly missile strikes on Kyiv.
