By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Russia-Ukraine conflict during a phone call that lasted more than an hour.
“We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace.”
Trump added that Putin indicated to him that Russia will “have to respond to the recent attack” on Russian airfields that Ukraine confirmed over the past weekend.
Ukraine launched a large-scale drone attack targeting Russian bases deep inside the country over the weekend in a move that surprised Moscow. The bases, some of which were located as far as Siberia, hosted bombers capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Ukrainian officials have said that more than 40 bombers, or about a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, were damaged or destroyed in attacks on Sunday. Russia disputed the figure and said that only a few planes were hit in the strikes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the attack as a “brilliant operation” that took more than “a year and a half” to carry out, according to a post on social media platform X.
“In total, 117 drones were used in the operation with a corresponding number of drone operators involved,” he said, adding that 34% “of the strategic cruise missile carriers stationed at air bases were hit,” referring to nuclear-capable bombers.
In a statement posted on the social media app Telegram on Sunday, the Russian Ministry of Defense acknowledged the attack but described it as a “terrorist attack using FPV drones against airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions.”
Russian officials added that aircraft caught fire in the Murmansk and Irkutsk areas because of drones that had been launched from “the immediate vicinity of the airfields,” according to a translated statement.
Some analysts said that Moscow may have to shift its military strategy in the more than three-year-long conflict in Ukraine.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute think tank, wrote on X that the drone attack “will degrade Russia’s ability to launch cruise missiles at Ukraine, and will force Russia to shift resources to protect facilities far from Ukraine.”
However, Lee said that he’s skeptical that the attack will significantly change Russia’s “perception of whether to continue the war because bringing the war to Russia has not led to significant political pressure on Putin and Ukraine is clearly very important to Putin.”
In the Wednesday post, Trump added that he spoke with Putin about Iran regarding its nuclear weapons program, indicating that “time is running out” to make a deal.
“I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement,” the president wrote, adding that Putin told him he’ll be partaking in the Iran discussions.
Trump also said, “It is my opinion that Iran has been slow walking their decision on this very important matter, and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time.”
