After a long phone call with Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump has warned that the Russian leader is plotting revenge for Ukraine’s weekend drone attacks.
Trump took to his Truth Social platform to share details from the call, which lasted about an hour and 15 minutes and covered Ukraine’s brazen strike on Russia’s docked planes.
‘I just finished speaking, by telephone, with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia,’ wrote Trump in the post that has since been deleted.
‘It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.’
Trump added that ‘President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields’.
The US president did not say if he pushed back on Putin’s intentions to avenge the mass attack.
Ukraine orchestrated a ‘Pearl Harbour’-level attack that wiped out more than one-third of Russia’s warplanes within minutes on Sunday. Operation Spider’s Web was masterminded over 18 months and has already gone down as one of the most devastating days to the Russian air force.
Putin did not appear publicly for two days after the strike.
Trump has claimed credit for bringing Russia and Ukraine together for peace talks, but the drone attacks have escalated the conflict further.
Last week, Trump said he would be able to tell within two weeks if Putin was serious about negotiating a ceasefire. Trump has not said much about how he will make that determination.
Trump’s post, which the White House shared a screengrab of on Wednesday afternoon, also included details on their conversation on the US’s efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran.
The Trump administration on Saturday offered a proposal that would allow Iran to keep enriching its soil with low levels of uranium while the US and other nations work on a plan to block its path to a nuclear weapon.
Trump stated that ‘time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons’ and that Putin may become involved.
‘I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and on this, I believe that we were in agreement,’ wrote Trump.
‘President Putin suggested that he w ill participate in the discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion.’
Trump opined that Iran is ‘slowwalking their decision’ and declared that the US needs ‘a definitive answer in a very short period of time!’
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