United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held an hour-long phone call on Tuesday to discuss the outcome of the visit by
peace negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to Russia and Ukraine during the visit. Trump told Putin that he wanted a swift end to the war in Ukraine, something that would allow US-Russia ties to be fully restored, the Kremlin said. Meanwhile, Putin assured Trump that Moscow doesn't harbour aggressive intentions toward Europe. Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign affairs adviser, said the hourlong conversation between Putin and Trump was "constructive and quite frank." Moscow has a positive view of the results of the weekend visit by Witkoff and Kushner, he added. "Donald Trump clearly emphasised the desirability of bringing the conflict to an end as soon as possible, which would immediately open up prospects – impressive and far-reaching ones at that – for the full restoration of relations between the US and Russia," said Ushakov. "In his view, this would have a particular impact on trade and economic ties, promising enormous benefits for both countries. Donald Trump is keen to see a breakthrough achieved during his presidency. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin supported this approach". Ushakov told reporters that "in view of the speculation about Russia’s alleged hostile intentions toward European countries, it was underlined that we don’t have any aggressive plans regarding Europe." There was no immediate comment from the White House or the US president on the call. US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff visited Moscow and Kyiv for separate talks with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the weekend. The meetings appeared to produce no substantial breakthrough on ending the fighting, and both countries resumed their deadly air war after a weekend truce. Two people were killed when Russia bombarded the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with drones and missiles overnight, local authorities said on Tuesday. A Ukrainian attack killed two people in Crimea. Russia and Ukraine have in recent months intensified their air war in an effort to grind each other down. Earlier today, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is close to victory, saying he believed "victory is very close".
