Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump makes baseless claim Kyiv is ‘militarily defeated’ after phone call with Putin – UK Times

President Donald Trump couldn’t say whether the war he launched against Iran in February would end before the four-year-old Russian war against Ukraine – and even confused the two countries.

The president immediately began a question-and-answer session that veered from UFOs to a recent conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin that had focused on the Ukraine and Iran wars.

“I talked about Ukraine, and I talked a little bit about Iran. I talked about few different subjects, mostly about Ukraine, and we had a very good conversation. I think we’re going to come up with a solution relatively quickly,” he said yesterday.

Trump said Putin would “like to be involved” with resolving Iran’s possession of enriched uranium – something the United States opposes – and remarked that he’d told Putin in turn that he’d prefer he be “involved with ending the war with Ukraine”.

US president Donald Trump said he discussed a possible ceasefire in the four-year war in Ukraine in a phone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

He spoke after the Kremlin reported the ⁠two leaders discussed a temporary Ukraine ceasefire to mark the anniversary of the end of the Second World War next month.

“We had a good talk, I’ve known him a long time,” said Trump. The two leaders had their last publicly reported phone call on ⁠9 March, although Trump has indicated ​they ⁠speak regularly.

Trump, speaking to reporters as he met with astronauts from the Artemis II mission in the Oval Office, said he suggested “a little ⁠bit of a ceasefire” in the war in Ukraine in his phone call ​with ⁠the Russian leader.

“And I think ‌he might do that,” Trump said, then asked reporters whether Putin had already announced a ceasefire.

Putin announced a similar truce last year that lasted ‌three days but was not agreed with Kyiv.

Trump ‌has a history of making positive comments about Putin and sharply criticising Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for not agreeing to make a deal with Russia to end the war.

The ​European Union is considering imposing stricter conditions on ⁠its €90bn loan to Ukraine, including ⁠making ​some ⁠payouts dependent on the introduction ⁠of an unpopular ​tax ⁠change for businesses, ‌Bloomberg News reported today, ‌citing people familiar with ‌the matter.

The plan would affect ⁠€8.4bn in so-called macro-financial assistance expected to be granted this year under the ‌program, the report ​said.

A Ukrainian drone strike sparked a “massive” fire at a Russian oil refinery in Tuapse on Tuesday, as Kyiv stepped up its campaign to target a critical generator of funding for Vladimir Putin’s war chest.

It was the third attack on the Black Sea port facility in less than two weeks as the Ukrainian military sought to disrupt the Russian oil and gas industry, which accounts for a big slice of Moscow’s federal budget.

After the Ukrainian military claimed responsibility for the latest strike, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin said in remarks that were broadcast on Russian television that “drone attacks against civilian ⁠infrastructure are becoming more frequent”. “The latest example is the strike against ​energy ⁠facilities in Tuapse,” he added, “which could potentially cause serious environmental consequences.”

Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has said Russia is running low on air-defence missiles to counter drone strikes.

“I noted that systematic strikes on Russian production facilities further degrade the enemy’s air defense capabilities, which are already experiencing a shortage of missiles to counter Ukrainian unmanned systems and strike assets,” Syrskyi said during a meeting with Canada’s defence chief in Kyiv on Sunday.

This morning, reports from Russia confirmed that there would be no military equipment on display for their Victory Day parade next month.

Experts monitoring the war have said increasing Ukrainian attacks are impacting Moscow’s war-depleted defences.

Ukraine has been steadily increasing the tempo of its strikes across Russia, and “will likely continue to exploit the large attack surface area of Russia’s deep rear and overstretched Russian air defences”, said the Institute for the Study of War on Sunday.

Donald Trump made the baseless claim that Ukraine is “militarily defeated” on Wednesday after a phone call with Vladimir Putin.

Speaking to reporters as he met with astronauts from the Artemis II mission in the Oval Office, the US president said he discussed a temporary Ukraine ceasefire to mark the anniversary of the end of World War Two next month.

He went on to claim that Kyiv had been “militarily defeated”, with no evidence. Ukraine is continuing to resist the Russian aggression across the frontline, with no significant gains made by Moscow in recent months.

“We had a good talk, I’ve known him a long time,” said Trump. The two leaders had their last publicly reported phone call on ⁠March 9, although Trump has indicated ​they ⁠speak regularly.

Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement last month that the Navy could board ships belonging to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” has had no clear impact on the number passing through British waters, according to a new Reuters analysis.

In the month after Sir Keir’s threat on 25 March, at least 98 Russian vessels subject to UK sanctions transited its waters, about the same ⁠as each of the last three months.

The UK has a total of 544 vessels ​linked to Russia’s “shadow fleet” on its sanctions list.

There ​has ⁠been no announcement of any boarding or detention of the ships, which typically have an opaque ownership structure and can transport oil, grains and ⁠arms, often in support of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

LSEG tracking data shows that 63 ​ships ⁠passed within 12 nautical miles of the ‌coastline in the English Channel, the most direct route between the Baltic Sea and southern Europe.

Another 35 travelled through Britain’s Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends up to ‌200 nautical miles from the coast, mainly around north ‌Scotland.

Ukraine struck what it said was an oil pumping station 1,500 km (900 miles) into Russia near the Ural Mountains with drones overnight, and president Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv would keep increasing the range of its strikes.

Kyiv has stepped up its attacks inside Russia in recent weeks, aiming to knock out oil refineries, depots and ports and cripple Moscow’s biggest source of funding for its war in Ukraine, as global prices have risen due to the Iran war.

Mr Zelensky said Ukraine’s security service had reported a successful strike deep inside Russia, calling it “a new stage in the use of Ukrainian weapons to limit the potential of Russia’s war” in a post on X.

First came the infantry, next the missiles, then the drones.

Now, after more than four years of a bloody and grinding war in Ukraine, remote-controlled ground robots are assuming command over the battlefield.

Last Wednesday, Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade had regained territory exclusively using a combination of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) and drones – a mission he says was a first in the war.

“The occupiers surrendered, and the operation was carried out without infantry and without losses on our side,” he went on, referring to an operation from the northeastern Kharkiv region last year, in which Ukrainian infantry occupied a position gained using the UGVs.