Russian President Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday that Moscow should respond to the recent Ukrainian drone attacks, the US president said.
Trump said the two men “discussed the attack on Russia’s plane, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have taken place on both sides.”
Putin “said, and very strongly that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airports,” 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 west of being involved in them.
Russia also called on the United States and Britain to limit Kyiv following the attacks that Ukrainian officials have hailed as showing that 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 conversations aimed at reaching a new nuclear agreement with Tehran, Trump said.
“I told President Putin that Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon, and on this I think we agreed,” Trump said. He accused Iran of “slow -going” decisions about the negotiations.
“It is my opinion that Iran has been slow to make their decision on this very important case and we need a final response to a very short period of time!”
The Republican has repeatedly alerted Kyiv and Western allies by looking to sit with Putin over the war and had a flaming oval office series with visitors Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky.
But Trump has also shown growing frustration over Putin, as Russia has so far derailed the US president’s efforts to honor a campaign lift to end the war within 24 hours – though he never explained how this could be achieved.
However, the call between Trump and Putin showed that Washington and Moscow can see cooperation on another important global topic – Iran.
Trump said he thought they both “agree” that Iran could not have a nuclear weapon, and that time was running out for Tehran to respond to us offers of an appointment.
“President Putin suggested that he would participate in the discussions with Iran and that he might be useful to get this to a quick conclusion,” Trump said.
Putin told his Iranian colleague Masoud Pezeshkian that Moscow was ready to help promote conversations about a nuclear deal, the Kremlin said Tuesday.
But Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier Wednesday that Washington’s proposal was against Tehran’s national interest, in the midst of sharp differences over whether Tehran can continue to enrich uranium.
