[ad_1]
US President Donald Trump said he did not make any headway toward ending Russia’s war in Ukraine during a call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and expressed frustration at the ongoing conflict. “We had a call, it was a pretty long call. We talked about a lot of things including Iran. We also talked about, as you know, the war with Ukraine, and I’m not happy about that,” Trump told reporters Thursday evening. “No, I didn’t make any progress,” he said when asked about their talks. This was the sixth publicly acknowledged call between the two leaders since Trump returned to the White House in January. The Kremlin earlier Thursday also indicated there had been little progress on ending the war — a key foreign policy aim of the US president — during the discussions. “Donald Trump once again raised the question of an early cessation of hostilities,” Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the call, which lasted almost one hour. Putin said Russia “will not back down” from its war aims, Ushakov added. He described the conversation as “frank, businesslike and concrete,” adding that the leaders agreed to continue their discussions soon. Putin and Trump talked about Iran and the situation in the Middle East “in considerable detail,” Ushakov added. There was no discussion of a meeting between the two leaders, and they didn’t touch on the US decision to halt weapons supplies to Ukraine, he said. Trump and Putin spoke after the Pentagon announced this week it was pausing the transfer of artillery rounds and air defenses to Ukraine, citing a review of US stockpiles as it weighs the need to save weapons for other threats. That’s as Russia has intensified its missile and drone attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks. Trump is likely to hold a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The US president campaigned on ending the war in Ukraine quickly, citing his relationship with Putin, but has also threatened to walk away if the two sides can’t agree to terms. Trump voiced his frustration at the pace of progress last month, saying it might be necessary to let Ukraine and Russia “fight for a little while” before trying to broker a peace deal. While Trump has squeezed weapons supplies to Ukraine, he hasn’t imposed any more sanctions on Russia. That’s despite appeals from Zelenskiy and European leaders to ramp up pressure on Putin. Putin agreed in talks this week with French President Emmanuel Macron to coordinate their approach on Iran, the first phone call between the two leaders since 2022. Iran is said to be cutting off communication with key United Nations atomic watchdog officials, deepening uncertainty over the status of its nuclear program. Macron wants to coordinate with permanent members of the UN Security Council on pressing Iran to accept the return of International Atomic Energy Agency inspections, Bloomberg reported this week. The US, Russia, China, France and the UK are permanent members of the Security Council. With assistance from Stephanie Lai and Ben Holland. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
[ad_2]
Source link
