Putin Planning Revenge for Ukraine Drone Attack, Trump Warns

Vladimir Putin is planning revenge for Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russia’s bomber fleet, Donald Trump has warned.

The US president said he had a “good conversation” with his Russian counterpart, after an unexpected phone call, but that it was “not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace”.

Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social network: “President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”

His comments came after Putin finally broke his silence following Kyiv’s co-ordinated drone assaults to once again rule out a ceasefire in Ukraine.

The Russian leader said that Kyiv would exploit the break in the fighting to rearm and remobilise and carry out further “terrorist attacks”.

In a televised government meeting on Wednesday, Putin said: “Why reward them by giving them a break from the combat, which will be used to pump the regime with Western arms, to continue their forced mobilisation and to prepare different terrorist acts.”

Since March, Ukraine has fully backed a US-proposed unconditional and an immediate 30-day truce, pushing for it once again at peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.

Despite Washington’s pleading, Moscow has consistently refused.

Putin had stayed quiet since Ukraine struck deep into the Russian heartland on June 1, damaging or destroying up to 20 of his prized strategic bombers, according to Western intelligence estimates.

The White House has insisted that it was not warned in advance of the attack.

The co-ordinated drone strikes are likely to have stoked fears in the Kremlin that Ukraine can strike its most prized military assets anywhere and unnerved Putin’s projected image of invincibility.

Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said all options were “on the table” in response to Ukraine’s attacks on Russian territory and accused the West of being involved in them.

Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said: “We urge London and Washington to react in such a way as to stop further escalation.”

Putin has not mentioned the assault, which Moscow has sought to downplay, claiming that only “several” planes caught fire.

Instead, the Russian leader questioned the point of peace talks as he accused Ukraine of being behind attacks on bridges in its border regions over the weekend that caused a train to derail, killing seven people.

Putin claimed that the attack, which Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for, was “directed at thwarting the negotiation process”.

He said: “How can we negotiate with those who rely on terror?”

The Russian president also dismissed Volodymyr Zelensky’s calls for a meeting after the Ukrainian president argued that direct top-level negotiations were the only way to end the three-year war.

Mr Zelensky told a briefing in Kyiv: “My proposal, which I believe our partners can support, is that we agree a ceasefire with the Russians until the leaders meet.”

Conditions for peace are ‘ultimatum’

He also called Russia’s conditions for peace an “ultimatum”.

During the unsuccessful peace talks in Turkey, Russia presented a peace settlement that largely reflected Putin’s goals from the outset of the invasion and which Kyiv said was tantamount to surrender.

Moscow had listed maximalist demands including complete control over four partially occupied Ukrainian regions and that international recognition of Russian sovereignty over them and Crimea must be granted.

The sharply conflicting demands from both sides leave little hope for any quick progress in talks.

Russia instead proposed on Monday a short two-three day ceasefire, which it said was a chance to let both armies collect the bodies of dead soldiers from the battlefield.

This idea was reportedly rejected by Kyiv as Russia has previously used similar pauses to prepare for fresh assaults.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, on Wednesday called the rejection a “gross mistake”.

However, it is still expected that a large-scale prisoner exchange agreed during the talks will go ahead this weekend.

Call between Putin and Pope

Putin on Wednesday also held his first telephone call with Pope Leo, in which the pair “exchanged views on the situation in Ukraine”, according to the Kremlin.

Keeping the contents of the call vague, the Kremlin claimed that Putin “reiterated his interest in achieving peace” but that the “root causes” of the conflict must be addressed first.

The new pontiff has been vocal in his demands for an end to the fighting and for a “lasting peace”. In a resurfaced 2022 interview, he condemned Russia’s aggression, calling it a “true invasion, imperialism in nature”.

His predecessor Pope Francis did not speak directly to Putin following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Their last known call was held in December 2021, but the pair had met three times before the war.