Trump says Putin to retaliate over Ukraine attacks as peace remains distant

KYIV, Ukraine – President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to retaliate against Ukraine for drone strikes against Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet as progress in U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations still appears distant.

Following a roughly 75-minute call with Putin, Trump said on social media that they had a good conversation, “but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”

The call comes as Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traded barbs and accusations just days after heavy strikes by both sides – as well as a second round of peace talks on Monday.

Zelenskyy rejected Russian proposals to end the fighting in Ukraine, calling them an “ultimatum” that Moscow sought to impose on Kyiv, which he said demonstrated that Putin is not interested in peace.

Zelenskyy said that the proposals were simply “theater” from the Russians, aimed at postponing additional Western sanctions for as long as possible. Instead, the Ukrainian leader proposed that both sides introduce an unconditional ceasefire in the period leading up to a meeting among the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and the United States.

Speaking to his cabinet ministers an hour later, Putin said Ukraine is run by a “terrorist” regime that targets civilians and is still losing the war. He dismissed the idea of a meeting.

“How to hold such meetings in these conditions? What to talk about? Who even negotiates with those who bet on terror, with terrorists?” he said, adding that “today they suffer one defeat after another on the battlefield. Apparently, we are dealing with people who not only lack any meaningful competence in anything, but also elementary political culture.”

In a Russian briefing on the call, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov made no mention of retaliation for the Ukrainian drone strikes but said that Putin and Trump did discuss the matter and that Trump had said he was not informed about the attacks ahead of time.

“The leaders agreed to continue further contacts on the Ukrainian issue, including at the highest level and through other channels,” Ushakov said.

Asked about the stunning drone attacks that damaged Russian aircraft, Ushakov said: “Our president spoke at some length about them, and I think it was very useful for Trump to listen to our assessments of what happened.”

Ukrainian and Russian delegations met Monday to exchange terms for peace talks. Russia’s terms, made public after the meeting, repeated long-standing Kremlin demands to end the war, such as Ukraine surrendering more territory to Russia, promising not to enter any military alliances and accepting severe restrictions on the size of its military.

Ukraine’s memo called for an immediate unconditional ceasefire, the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, no international recognition of lands conquered by Russia and freedom for Ukraine to join Western organizations.

Zelenskyy said Russia’s demands were unacceptable.

“The Russians understood that this was an ultimatum and that the Ukrainian side, or no one, would take it seriously,” Zelenskyy told journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday. He added that if the demands had been made public before the meeting in Istanbul, Ukrainian officials “would have been in their full rights” not to attend.

One of the only results of the talks was a prisoner exchange, which Zelenskyy said will take place this weekend, allowing some 500 Ukrainian troops to return home. Later, the two sides will exchange the corpses of fallen service members, but this will take longer to allow for proper identification of the bodies.

On Sunday, Ukraine took responsibility for a series of drone attacks against far-flung Russian airfields that disabled several Russian strategic bombers in a shocking attack against assets believed to be far out of range of Ukrainian weapons.

Two bridges also collapsed in the Bryansk and Kursk regions in incidents the Russians are calling terrorist attacks. On Tuesday there were also explosions on the Crimean Bridge connecting the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula with Russia.

Despite these Ukrainian successes, Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center warned that, rather than bringing Putin to the negotiating table, they would instead inspire him to escalate the conflict even further.

“Based on years – now decades – of observing Putin’s decision-making, I believe such attacks will only reinforce his determination to dismantle the Ukrainian state in its current form,” she wrote on X. “He will respond by becoming more hardline and less compliant.”

In addition to Russia’s nightly drone and missile strikes, its forces have been gaining ground in the northeastern Sumy region, taking a number of villages.

Zelenskyy dismissed the recent Russian advances in Sumy as “nothing new” and said that Russian forces “were not achieving any success.” He maintained that Ukrainian forces were well aware of and prepared for the attacks.

The Ukrainian military analysis website DeepState, however, painted a darker picture, writing in a post on Wednesday that “the situation remains critical due to the enemy’s rapid advance,” coming within a distance of 12 to 15 miles from the regional capital, also called Sumy.

On Tuesday, Russian forces shelled the city center from multiple rocket launchers, killing five people, local officials said.

A senior NATO official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said that while there was no major change on the front lines over the past month, Russian forces had been making small but steady advances overall.

Ukraine’s Western backers met at NATO headquarters to rally more pledges of weapons and money for Kyiv in the hope of strengthening its hand in any negotiations. But the Pentagon chief did not attend the meeting of the pro-Ukrainian group, which the United States itself created and led for years.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was not expected in Brussels until after the meeting on Ukraine. While NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte downplayed his lack of attendance, his absence, even virtually, only added to mounting questions about the future of U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

Britain, which chaired Wednesday’s meeting alongside Germany, said it would provide Ukraine 100,000 drones by April next year. Ukraine’s chief European backers have sought to drum up billions in pledges to keep the stream of military aid flowing at least through 2025.

Still, with no promises from the Trump administration, the looming end of Biden-era deliveries in the coming months has fueled concerns about sustaining the fight in the longer term.