• Russian president tells his US counterpart Moscow will not ‘give up’ aims in Ukraine
• No word from Washington on conversation that lasted almost an hour

MOSCOW: US President Donald Trump pushed for a quick halt to the Ukraine war in a Thursday phone call with Vladimir Putin, while a Kremlin aide said the Russian president reiterated that Moscow would keep pushing to solve the conflict’s “root causes”.

The two leaders did not discuss a recent pause in some US weapons shipments to Kyiv during the nearly hour-long call, according to a readout provided by Putin aide Yuri Ushakov.

The Kremlin said the call lasted almost an hour.

The pair spoke as US-led peace talks on ending the more than three-year-old conflict in Ukraine have stalled and after Washington paused some weapons shipments to Kyiv.

According to the Kremlin, Putin told Trump that Moscow will not “give up” on its aims in Ukraine.

Trump has been frustrated with both Moscow and Kyiv as US efforts to end fighting have yielded no breakthrough.

Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people and Russia now controls large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine. Even so, Putin told Trump that Moscow would continue to take part in negotiations.

“He also spoke of the readiness of the Russian side to continue the negotiation process,” Ushakov added. “Vladimir Putin said that we are continuing to look for a political, negotiated solution to the conflict.”

Moscow has for months refused to agree to a US-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine.

Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Putin of dragging out the process while pushing on with Russia’s advance in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said that Putin had also “stressed” to Trump that all conflicts in the Middle East should be solved “diplomatically”, after the US struck nuclear sites in Russia’s ally Iran.

Ushakov said the issue of weapons deliveries to Ukraine did not come up during the Trump-Putin phone call. He added that while Russia was open to continuing to speak with the US, any peace negotiations needed to occur between Moscow and Kyiv.

That comment comes amid some indications that Moscow is trying to avoid a trilateral format for any peace negotiations. The Russians asked American diplomats to leave the room during such a meeting in Istanbul in early June, Ukrainian officials have said.

Trump and Putin did not talk about a face-to-face meeting, Ushakov said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, told reporters in Denmark that he hopes to speak to Trump as soon as Friday about the ongoing pause in some weapons shipments, which was first disclosed earlier this week.

Trump did not immediately comment on the conversation with Putin, but he said on social media beforehand that he would speak to the Russian leader.

“Root causes” has become Russian shorthand for issue of Nato enlargement and Western support for Ukraine, including the rejection of any notion of Ukraine joining the Nato alliance. Russian leaders are also angling to establish greater control over political decisions made in Kyiv and other eastern European capitals, Nato leaders have said.

The diplomatic back-and-forth comes as the US has paused shipments of certain critical weapons to Ukraine due to low stockpiles, sources earlier told Reuters.

That decision led to Ukraine calling in the acting US envoy to Kyiv on Wednesday to underline the importance of military aid from Washington, and caution that the move would weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend against intensifying Russian airstrikes and battlefield advances.

The Pentagon’s move led in part to a cut in deliveries of Patriot air defence missiles that Ukraine relies on to destroy fast-moving ballistic missiles.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2025