Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump on Friday that Ukraine's drone strikes on Moscow have made an immediate resumption of Ukraine peace talks unlikely, the Kremlin said — the latest setback for the U.S. president's long-running effort to broker an end to the war.
According to a Kremlin readout of the phone call, Putin told Trump that Kyiv had "effectively disrupted the possibility of an immediate resumption of the negotiation process" by launching drone attacks on Moscow, other Russian cities and polling stations during Russia's parliamentary elections last month. The account came from Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, Reuters reported.
What Putin told Trump on the call
Ushakov said Putin accused Ukraine of a "massive drone attack on Moscow, other cities and polling stations, as well as on specific individuals involved in organising the election, on the main voting day." Putin had previously said Moscow was ready to resume negotiations with Kyiv after September's Russian parliamentary elections — but claimed the Ukrainian strikes put the peace process in jeopardy.
"And now, as the president said, we will consider when those negotiations can be resumed," Ushakov added, referring to the trilateral talks involving the United States, Russia and Ukraine.
The call itself was described in warm terms by Moscow. Ushakov later told the Interfax news agency that the conversation lasted about 90 minutes and was "very substantive and friendly" — adding that neither leader wanted to be the first to hang up: "They hung up simultaneously, literally at the same time," Reuters reported.
Rubio warns of a "dangerous stalemate"
The downbeat Kremlin readout landed a day after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Russia's war in Ukraine was at a "dangerous stalemate" and that Washington would keep working toward a settlement. Trump has so far unsuccessfully tried to broker a peace deal to end the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
On Friday, even as the two leaders spoke, negotiators from the United States, Ukraine and European countries held talks in Miami aimed at agreeing a unified peace proposal in the coming weeks that could be presented to Russia, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Efforts to end the fighting have so far stalled, partly over Russia's demand for four Ukrainian regions it does not fully control.
What happens next
The Kremlin's message is clear: no quick return to the negotiating table. With the Miami process still seeking a unified proposal and Moscow insisting Kyiv sabotaged the timeline, the diplomatic track now hinges on whether the United States can bridge a gap that has only widened since the last round of talks. For now, the war grinds on — and the phone calls keep coming.
Watch: news coverage of the Putin-Trump call and the stalled push to restart Ukraine peace talks.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Long Road Ahead B (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0