US President Donald Trump has said he held a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to discuss the Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian airbases.
Ukrainian drones hit multiple Russian airbases on Monday in a coordinated assault. Targets ranged from Murmansk in the Arctic to Irkutsk in Siberia. Kiev claims the strikes damaged or destroyed approximately 40 Russian military aircraft, including Tu-95 and Tu-22 long-range bombers. Moscow has not verified these claims, stating that most of the incoming drones were intercepted.
Reports suggest the attack was executed using explosive-laden drones launched from commercial trucks that had been covertly brought into Russian territory.
Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, writing that the call with Putin lasted more than an hour, describing it as “a good conversation.”
“We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides,” he wrote, noting, however, it was “not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.”
Trump added that the Russian president “did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”
Moscow has confirmed the Trump-Putin phone call. Yury Ushakov, the top foreign policy adviser to the Russian president, told a press briefing on Wednesday that the two leaders agreed to continue contacts on Ukraine, including at the highest level and through other channels. According to Ushakov, Putin informed Trump that Kiev had tried to sabotage the direct Russia-Ukraine talks – the second round of which was held in Istanbul on Monday – by launching targeted strikes on Russian civilian sites under direct orders from the Ukrainian leadership.
Putin on Wednesday called the railway sabotage in Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk Regions “undoubtedly a terrorist act” by the “illegitimate regime in Kiev,” which, he said, “is gradually turning into a terrorist organization.”
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