Trump says ‘didn't make any progress' with Putin on Ukraine
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said he made no progress with Vladimir Putin on ending the Ukraine war in a call Thursday, as the Kremlin insisted the Russian president would stick to his aims in the conflict.
Trump's grim assessment came as US-led peace talks on ending the more than three-year-old conflict in Ukraine have stalled, and after Washington paused some weapons shipments to Kyiv.
'It was a pretty long call, we talked about a lot of things including Iran, and we also talked about, as you know, the war with Ukraine. And I'm not happy about that,' Trump told reporters.
Asked if he had moved closer to a deal to end the war, Trump replied: 'No, I didn't make any progress with him at all.'
Trump's view of the call was unusually bleak. After most of his previous five calls with Putin since returning to power in January he has given optimistic reports of progress towards a deal.
But he has shown increasing frustration with Putin after an early pivot towards the Russian leader. In recent weeks he knocked back Putin's offer to mediate in the Iran-Israel conflict, telling him to focus on the Ukraine war instead.
In Moscow, the Kremlin said the call lasted almost an hour and said that Putin had insisted he would not give up on Russia's goals.
'Our president said that Russia will achieve the aims it set, that is to say the elimination of the root causes that led to the current state of affairs,' Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
'Russia will not give up on these aims.'
Moscow has long described its maximalist aims in Ukraine as getting rid of the 'root causes' of the conflict, demanding that Kyiv give up its NATO ambitions.
- Zelensky in Denmark -
Moscow's war in Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people since it invaded in February 2022, and Russia now controls large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Even so, Putin told Trump that Moscow would continue to take part in negotiations.
'He also spoke of the readiness of the Russian side to continue the negotiation process,' Ushakov added. 'Vladimir Putin said that we are continuing to look for a political, negotiated solution to the conflict.'
Moscow has for months refused to agree to a US-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine.
Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Putin of dragging out the process while pushing on with Russia's advance in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said that Putin had also 'stressed' to Trump that all conflicts in the Middle East should be solved 'diplomatically', after the US struck nuclear sites in Russia's ally Iran.
The conversation came days after Washington announced a decision to pause some weapons shipments in a blow to Kyiv, which has been reliant on Western military support.
Kyiv said that Russian strikes on Thursday killed at least eight people in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was visiting ally Denmark on Thursday to meet leading European Union officials.
Zelensky told EU allies in Denmark that doubts over US military aid reinforced the need for greater cooperation with Brussels and NATO.
He also stressed again that Kyiv had always supported Trump's 'unconditional ceasefire'.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP that Trump and Zelensky planned to speak to each other on Friday.
On Wednesday, Kyiv scrambled to clarify with Washington the implications of announcements by the White House and Pentagon on pausing some weapons shipments.
'Continued American support for Ukraine, for our defence, for our people is in our common interest,' Zelensky had said on Wednesday.
Russia has consistently called for Western countries to stop sending weapons to Kyiv. - AFP
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