Russia will not 'give up' aims in Ukraine, Putin tells Trump

Russian leader Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump by telephone on Thursday that Moscow will not “give up” on its aims in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

The pair spoke as US-led peace talks on ending the more than three-year-old conflict in Ukraine have stalled and after Washington paused some weapons shipments to Kyiv.

The Kremlin said the call lasted almost an hour.

Trump has been frustrated with both Moscow and Kyiv as US efforts to end fighting have yielded no breakthrough.

“Our president said that Russia will achieve the aims it set, that is to say the elimination of the root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.

“Russia will not give up on these aims.”

Moscow has long described its maximalist aims in Ukraine as getting rid of the “root causes” of the conflict, demanding that Kyiv give up its NATO ambitions.

Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people and Russia now controls large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.

Even so, Putin told Trump that Moscow would continue to take part in negotiations.

“He also spoke of the readiness of the Russian side to continue the negotiation process,” Ushakov added.

“Vladimir Putin said that we are continuing to look for a political, negotiated solution to the conflict,” Ushakov said.

Moscow has for months refused to agree to a US-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine.

Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Putin of dragging out the process while pushing on with Russia’s advance in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said that Putin had also “stressed” to Trump that all conflicts in the Middle East should be solved “diplomatically”, after the US struck nuclear sites in Russia’s ally Iran.

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– Zelensky in Denmark –

Putin and Trump spoke as Kyiv said that Russian strikes on Thursday killed at least eight people in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was visiting ally Denmark on Thursday.

A senior Ukrainian official told AFP that Trump and Zelensky planned to speak to each other on Friday.

The US deciding to pause some weapons shipments has severely hampered Kyiv, which has been reliant on Western military support since Moscow launched its offensive in 2022.

Zelensky told EU allies in Denmark that doubts over US military aid reinforced the need for greater cooperation with Brussels and NATO.

He stressed again that Kyiv had always supported Trump’s “unconditional ceasefire”.

On Wednesday, Kyiv scrambled to clarify with the US what a White House announcement on pausing some weapons shipments meant.

“Continued American support for Ukraine, for our defence, for our people is in our common interest,” Zelensky had said on Wednesday.

Russia has consistently called for Western countries to stop sending weapons to Kyiv.