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Putin remains open to contact with Trump, says Kremlin spokesperson
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Moscow has offered another phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin after the US president said he was “p***** off” with the Russian leader.
Mr Trump told NBC News he was very angry after Mr Putin criticised the credibility of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. The US president suggested he could impose secondary tariffs of 25-50 per cent on buyers of Russian oil.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was continuing to work with Washington and that Mr Putin remained open to contacts with Mr Trump.
A call between both the presidents, Mr Peskov said, could be arranged at short notice if necessary, though none was scheduled for this week.
But Washington must not be misled by Putin’s “stalling tactics”, outgoing German foreign minister Anna Baerbock said after her arrival in Kyiv on Tuesday morning.
This comes as Mr Putin signed a decree on the spring conscription for military service to boost his army as his military invasion in Ukraine continues.
The Russian president has ordered at least 160,000 men between 18 to 30-year-old to be drafted into the army by mid-summer this year, even as he drags on peace talks with Ukraine and the US, Russian news agency reported.
Vladimir Putin’s efforts to end its three-year war with Ukraine are “a drawn-out process,” the Kremlin has claimed – despite Donald Trump’s anger at the Russian leader dragging his feet over a ceasefire, and Moscow’s repeated aerial assaults on Ukraine.
“We are working to implement some ideas in connection with the Ukrainian settlement. This work is ongoing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters
It comes after the US president told NBC’s Kristen Welker that he was “p***** off” after Putin called for elections in Ukraine and again questioned the credibility of Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, despite the Ukrainian leader being his nation’s elected leader.
Steffie Banatvala reports:
Volodymyr Zelensky has said he held “meaningful and frank” talks with prime minister Sir Keir Starmer on Monday.
Sir Keir shared details of his phone call with Donald Trump, in which they “discussed the outcomes of the recent leaders’ meeting in Paris and the importance of maintaining pressure on Putin”, Mr Zelensky said.
The pair are preparing for “substantive discussions” when military representatives of countries willing to engage in peacekeeping efforts in Ukraine meet in the war-torn country later this week.
Mr Zelensky also expressed thanks towards Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who visited Ukraine alongside other European parliamentarians.
US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has held sensitive conversations regarding peace in Ukraine on Signal, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has cited US officials as saying.
It comes amid a major row over Mr Waltz appeared to accidentally leak sensitive information regarding a US attack on Yemen’s Houthis to the Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief on a Signal group chat.
According to two US officials, Waltz has also discussed peace between Russia and Ukraine and military operations on Signal, the WSJ reported. The officials did not say whether classified information was revealed in the conversations.
Last night appears to be the first time Russia has not launched a mass drone attack on civilian targets so far in 2025.
Putin’s forces did, however, fire two cruise missiles at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Officials in the Dnipropetrovsk region also reported drone attacks against the region “between the evening and the morning”, but did not comment on the number of drones and said only limited damage was done, The Kyiv Independent reported.
The air force’s report did not mention any drone attacks, and the military did not announce any alarms connected to drone strikes overnight.
National Security and Defense Council official Andrii Kovalenko says it “doesn’t mean anything” and Ukraine will “keep monitoring” the situation.
More from Anna Baerbock, Germany’s outgoing foreign minister who is visiting Kyiv on Tuesday.
Washington should not be misled by Vladimir Putin’s “stalling tactics” to delay a ceasefire, she said in a statement after her arrival.
“At the upcoming meeting of NATO foreign ministers, we will make it clear to the American side that we should not engage with Putin’s stalling tactics,” the statement added.
Russia fired two Kh-59/69 cruise missiles at southeastern Ukraine overnight, Kyiv’s air force said.
Both the missiles were shot down by Ukraine’s air defences.
The air force did not mention any drones launched by Russia overnight in its statement on the Telegram app.
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has arrived in Kyiv as European allies look to bolster support for Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters, Ms Baerbock says Europe must support Kyiv more than ever.
Given the deadlock between the USA and Russia, she says, in an apparent reference to Donald Trump’s reported anger with Vladimir Putin, Europeans must now show that they stand by Ukraine without any ifs or buts.
Ms Baerbock is expected to be replaced as foreign minister once CDU leader Friedrich Merz becomes chancellor following his February election success.
British, French and Ukrainian military leaders will meet in the coming days to build on “real momentum” in efforts to boost Ukraine’s security, a spokesperson for prime minister Keir Starmer said.
The meeting to “drive forward the next stage of detailed planning” was agreed on a call between Sir Keir and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, the spokesperson said yesterday.
The call came after a “coalition of the willing” of European countries supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia met in Paris last week and vowed to strengthen Kyiv’s army for future security.
France and Britain at the meeting also tried to expand support for a planned foreign “reassurance force” in the event of a truce with Russia.
“The leaders reflected on their visit to Paris last week and agreed there was real momentum to support Ukraine’s security for the long term,” the prime minister’s spokesperson said.
Such is the Trump Tower-sized self-conceit of Donald J Trump that for weeks – if not months – he could not see what virtually the whole of the rest of the world could: Vladimir Putin was playing him like a cheap violin.
Trump, seemingly mesmerised by the Russian leader, gave his friend everything he wanted: dominance in Ukraine, aside from a carve-out for US mineral interests; a Russian zone of influence in Europe; the abandonment of Nato and other allies. All of that in return for the Russians scaling back their nuclear arsenal and giving the Americans a free run at acquiring Greenland and Canada (even if they are not Russia’s to give away and won’t ever happen).
That looked to be the kind of grand bargain Trump was looking for, but Putin overplayed his hand.
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