Donald Trump stated Vladimir Putin was not prepared for an “fast peace” in Ukraine after an hour-long dialog on Wednesday throughout which the Russian president warned of retaliation for Kyiv’s drone assault on his nation’s bomber fleet.
The US president stated the decision with Putin was “good”, protecting each the combating with Ukraine and ongoing talks with Iran over its nuclear programme, however added that it was not a dialog that will result in a breakthrough in peace talks with Kyiv.
“President Putin did say, and really strongly, that he should reply to the latest assault on the airfields,” Trump stated on Reality Social after the decision, which he stated lasted for an hour and quarter-hour.
“We mentioned the assault on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and in addition varied different assaults which have been happening by either side,” Trump added. “It was a very good dialog, however not a dialog that may result in fast Peace.”
The dialog, the second between the leaders in lower than a month, got here after Putin rejected Ukraine’s requires a right away ceasefire and a top-level summit to finish his three-year, full-scale invasion of the nation.
In a televised cupboard assembly earlier on Wednesday, the Russian president accused Ukraine of “organising terrorist assaults” after a daring collection of strikes behind enemy strains, and dismissed his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s phrases for peace.
“How can we now have conferences like this underneath these situations? What’s there to speak about? Who has negotiations with . . . terrorists?” Putin stated.
Zelenskyy had hours earlier rejected Russia’s phrases for peace, saying its calls for had been an “ultimatum” that will be tantamount to Ukraine’s give up.
The duelling statements appeared to go away low-level peace talks brokered by Turkey and the US, the primary for the reason that struggle’s early weeks in 2022, in tatters after representatives of Russia and Ukraine met in Istanbul for a second time on Monday.
The 2 sides discovered little frequent floor past agreeing to carry prisoner exchanges, whereas the combating has solely intensified for the reason that first spherical of talks in Might.
Moscow and Kyiv exchanged paperwork laying out their phrases for a peace settlement on Monday, making it clear that they continue to be as far aside as at any level in the course of the struggle.
Moscow’s memorandum units out powerful situations, together with calls for for the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from a number of main cities and territories, a ban on Kyiv becoming a member of navy alliances and the lifting of all sanctions in opposition to Russia.
“This can’t be known as a memorandum,” Zelenskyy stated on Wednesday. “It’s an ultimatum that the Russian aspect is attempting to impose on us.”
He added: “We’re prepared for prisoner exchanges, however I contemplate it pointless to proceed diplomatic conferences in Istanbul that don’t resolve something.”
Putin, in the meantime, blamed Ukraine for a collection of railway bombings that he stated had been “completely aimed toward derailing the negotiating course of” and accused Kyiv of “intentionally focusing on civilians”.
Kyiv inflicted a few of the struggle’s worst injury on his navy infrastructure over the weekend. Ukrainian drones that had been hidden in vehicles throughout an 18-month operation hit airfields deep inside Russia on Sunday, dealing doubtlessly important injury to Moscow’s strategic bomber capabilities.
Within the cupboard assembly, Putin accused Ukraine of finishing up a collection of railway bombings on the identical day wherein at the least seven passengers had been killed and 73 extra injured.
Ukraine has celebrated the strikes on the airfields, in addition to a separate bombing of Russia’s bridge to the occupied Crimean peninsula that happened on Tuesday. It has not claimed duty for the railway bombings.
Putin stated Ukraine had resorted to “terrorist assaults” as a result of Russia maintained the higher hand on the battlefield.
“Why ought to we encourage them by giving them a breather on the battlefield that they’ll use to prop up their regime with western weapons, proceed compelled mobilisation, and plot extra terrorist assaults?” he stated.
Putin’s feedback made it clear Russia had no intention of declaring a right away ceasefire or holding a summit with Zelenskyy, two of Ukraine’s essential calls for on the talks on Monday.
Studying from Russia’s doc in a briefing with reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday, Zelenskyy dismissed calls for he described as near-identical to these made by Moscow within the early phases of the struggle in 2022.
He known as on the US to hit Russia with new sanctions if it rejected Ukraine’s provide of a summit and ceasefire.
“If there is no such thing as a understanding in regards to the want to de-escalate or a few clear imaginative and prescient to finish the battle, then the ceasefire can be instantly and unilaterally damaged by the Russian aspect,” he stated.
Ukraine and Russia plan to hold out what Vladimir Medinsky, the top of Moscow’s delegation in Istanbul, stated could be the biggest prisoner trade in the course of the struggle this weekend, involving as much as 1,200 individuals from all sides.
A parallel trade of 6,000 troopers’ stays can also be underneath method, although Medinsky has refused to acknowledge that Russia’s casualty numbers are as excessive as Ukraine’s and advised Putin that Kyiv “in all probability [has] a lot, a lot fewer” handy over.
