WASHINGTON: Russian President Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday that Moscow would have to respond to the recent Ukrainian drone attacks, the US President said.
Trump said the two men “discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides.” Putin “did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” Trump said in a social media post.
Trump said it “was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace.” Moscow said earlier on Wednesday that military options were “on the table” for its response to Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russia and accused the West of being involved in them.
The Russian president also spoke by phone with Pope Leo and thanked him for offering to help settle the Ukraine conflict.
Putin says in phone conversation with Pope Leo that Ukraine ‘is bent on escalating conflict’
Putin told the pope that Kyiv is intent on “escalating” the war, according to the Kremlin.
“Gratitude was expressed to the pontiff for his readiness to help settle the crisis, in particular the Vatican’s participation in resolving difficult humanitarian issues on a depoliticised basis,” the Kremlin said.
Putin highlighted “that the Kyiv regime is banking on escalating the conflict and is carrying out sabotage against civilian infrastructure sites on Russian territory”, the statement said, describing those acts as terrorism.
Russia also urged the US and Britain to restrain Kyiv after the attacks, which Ukrainian officials have lauded as showing Kyiv can still fight back after more than three years of war. British and US officials have said they had no prior knowledge of the weekend attacks on Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers.
In his social media post, Trump said he and Putin also discussed Iran. Putin suggested he would participate in talks aimed at reaching a new nuclear deal with Tehran, Trump said.
“I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement,” Trump said. He accused Iran of “slowwalking” decisions regarding the talks.
Root causes
About the Russian president’s conversation with Pope Leo, Kremlin restated that the conflict’s “root causes” must be addressed, a reference to Russian demands that Ukraine adopt a neutral status and Nato rule out eastward expansion.
Russia has sought to cultivate good ties with the new pope and his predecessor.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other officials have said the Vatican is not a suitable site for peace talks between two largely Orthodox Christian countries. The Russian statement expressed hope the
Vatican would “take a more active role” in calling for freedom of religion in Ukraine for members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that has historic links to Russia.
Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2025
