US President Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin warned him "very strongly" in a call today that he would respond to Ukraine's attack on Russian airfields, adding that any immediate prospect of peace remained far off.
Kyiv's mass drone strikes on Sunday destroyed several nuclear-capable bombers worth billions of dollars, and dominated the third call between the Russian and US presidents since Mr Trump returned to power.
Earlier, Mr Putin had appeared to rule out a ceasefire or any direct talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Turkey has suggested it could host such negotiations and invited Mr Trump, too.
"It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace," said Mr Trump in a social media post. "President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields."
The US leader added that during his call with Mr Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, launching a grinding war, they had "discussed the attack on Russia's docked airplanes" as well as other attacks "by both sides".
The Kremlin described the call, which also focused on negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, as "positive" and "productive".
Ukraine carried out a series of drone attacks in Russia last weekend, with Russian aircraft parked at four airbases among the targets
'Why reward them?'
The US president has shown growing frustration with Mr Putin - last week calling him "crazy" - as Russia has continued attacks and derailed Mr Trump's campaign pledge to end the war within 24 hours.
President Putin's call with Mr Trump appeared to be part of a diplomatic offensive by the Russian leader, who also discussed the Ukraine war with Pope Leo XIV in a telephone conversation today.
The Kremlin said Mr Putin told the pope he wanted peace through diplomacy but added that "the regime in Kyiv is betting on an escalation of the conflict and carrying out of acts of sabotage against civil infrastructure on Russian territory".
Mr Putin earlier accused Ukraine of being behind "terrorist" attacks on bridges in its border regions over the weekend, including one that caused a train to derail, killing seven people.
He said any full ceasefire would just give Kyiv a chance to rearm.
"Why reward them by giving them a break from the combat, which will be used to pump the regime with Western arms, to continue their forced mobilization and to prepare different terrorist acts," Mr Putin said in a televised government meeting.
Ukraine has been pushing for an unconditional and immediate 30-day truce, issuing its latest proposal to Moscow at peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.
'Ultimatum'
President Zelensky said earlier today that Russia had handed Ukraine an "ultimatum" and recycled old demands in Turkey, where the only concrete agreement was on a series of large-scale prisoner exchanges.
Moscow's demands included Ukraine fully pulling out of four regions - Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia - that Russia claims to have annexed but does not have full control over.
Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready "any day" for a meeting proposed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that would also include the US and Russian leaders.
The White House says Mr Trump is "open" to such a meeting.
More than three years into Russia's invasion, which has cost tens of thousands of lives, the two sides have opened direct talks searching for a way to end what has become Europe's largest conflict since World War II.
Ukrainian troops have been suffering months of setbacks on the battlefield as Russian forces steadily advance across key sectors of the sprawling front line.
Russia's army said it had captured another village in Ukraine's Sumy border region as it seeks to establish what it calls a "buffer zone" inside Ukrainian territory.
Kyiv has sought to gain assurances of continued support from Washington. On Wednesday, senior Zelensky aide Andriy Yermak met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington.
Ukrainian refugees in Europe
The European Commission has proposed extending Ukrainian refugees' right to stay in the EU for another year, while for the first time stating clearly that their special status will at some point end.
The commission said that the protections granted by the 27-nation bloc following Moscow's February 2022 invasion, currently benefiting 4.3 million Ukrainians, should be rolled over until March 2027.
At the same time, it called for member states to begin "paving the way for a transition out of temporary protection once the necessary conditions are met".
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the West was involved, both directly and indirectly, in Ukrainian "terrorist attacks" against civilian targets in Russia.
Western countries, NATO and "the collective West" supply weapons and provide coordinates for such attacks, Ms Zakharova said.
Mr Trump's envoy to Ukraine has said the risk of escalation from the war in Ukraine was "going way up" after Ukrainian forces used drones to strike nuclear-capable bombers at several airbases deep inside Russia.
Ukraine said it attacked airfields in Siberia and Russia's far north over the weekend, striking targets up to 4,300 km from the front lines of the conflict.
"I'm telling you, the risk levels are going way up - I mean, what happened this weekend," Mr Trump's envoy, Keith Kellogg, told Fox News.
"People have to understand in the national security space: when you attack an opponent's part of their national survival system, which is their triad, the nuclear triad, that means your risk level goes up because you don't know what the other side is going to do. You're not sure."
Russia and the United States together hold about 88% of all nuclear weapons.
Each power has three main ways of attacking with nuclear warheads, known as the nuclear triad: strategic bombers, land-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
Mr Kellogg said the damage to the Russian bombers at the weekend was less important than the psychological impact on Russia and that he was particularly concerned by unconfirmed reports of a Ukrainian attack on a naval base in northern Russia.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said yesterday that Mr Trump had not been informed in advance of Ukraine's drone attacks on Russia's bombers.
