Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin today for over an hour. According to Trump, Putin declared Russia plans to retaliate against Ukraine for its devastating surprise attack over the weekend.
“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” wrote Trump. “President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”
Breaking News: Vladimir Putin plans to retaliate against Ukraine’s surprise attack, President Trump said after speaking to the Russian leader by phone. https://trib.al/L4hdRaU
[image or embed] — The New York Times (@nytimes.com) June 4, 2025 at 10:41 AM
From the New York Times:
Mr. Trump did not say in the statement if he sought to discourage Mr. Putin from attacking Ukraine. He rather expressed optimism over the prospect of working with Mr. Putin on another foreign policy priority: deterring Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions inquiring if Mr. Trump had pushed back against Mr. Putin in the phone call or why his Truth Social post had been temporarily deleted.
The post broke a rare, if temporary, silence by Mr. Trump on complex international affairs. The statement was his first about Kyiv’s drone attack on airfields in Russia, a stunning assault that hit nuclear-capable bombers, revealing a significant vulnerability.
You’ll recall Trump campaigned on a promise that he could end the Russian invasion of Ukraine “in one day” citing his “very, very good relationship” with Putin. And yet, here we are more than four months into Trump’s second administration and it appears there’s no real progress on bringing the conflict to an end.
Even though there is a bipartisan measure in the Senate to impose strong economic sanctions on Russia – led by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) – Trump has refused the endorse the bill.
Sunday’s drone attacks in Russia reportedly took 18 months to plan and involved smuggling drones inside the country on commercial trucks where they were parked near military airfields. They were then activated remotely and piloted to their targets.
The attack reportedly caused about $7 billion in damage.
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