With the NATO summit in Ankara just days away, US President Donald Trump picked up the phone to speak separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, pressing the long-running war in Ukraine to the top of a packed diplomatic agenda, the Kremlin and Mr Zelensky said.
Both sides said the calls also served as a nod to the United States’ 250th birthday.
According to Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s foreign policy aide, the leaders “naturally addressed” prospects for a settlement in Ukraine, with an eye on Mr Trump’s planned attendance at the NATO summit in Turkey on 7 and 8 July. RIA Novosti reported Mr Ushakov’s remarks.
Mr Trump, Mr Ushakov said, “once again confirmed his readiness to work towards a rapid end to the fighting and find solutions to overcome the crisis.”
Volodymyr Zelensky said he and Mr Trump discussed ‘the current situation on the front line’
Mr Zelensky offered his own account, saying he and Mr Trump covered the state of the war — now more than four years old — and described their exchange as “a very good phone call.”
“President Trump and I discussed the current situation on the front line as well as our diplomatic efforts,” Mr Zelensky wrote on social media platform X.
He argued that momentum exists to bring the conflict to a close, and placed particular weight on Washington’s role. “There is a real prospect to put an end to this war, and America’s resolve is decisive. We have agreed to continue these discussions during the NATO Summit in Ankara,” he added.
Leaders and delegations from 32 countries — including Mr Trump — are expected to begin arriving in Ankara starting on Tuesday for the summit.
In Moscow’s telling, the political battle lines around the war remain as sharp as those on the ground. Mr Ushakov accused Kyiv and its European allies of “counting on extending and even escalating the conflict, and on terrorism against civilians.”
He said he was referring to Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russian targets, many of them tied to the oil industry.
Mr Ushakov also quoted Mr Trump as saying Washington’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, would continue trying to broker a settlement and stood ready to make another trip to Moscow.
During the call, Mr Ushakov said, Mr Putin “depicted the real situation on the battlefield where the Russian armed forces are confidently advancing, liberating one locality after another.”
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a building following a Russian airstrike in Kramatorsk
The Kremlin’s battlefield claims have been met with firm denial from Kyiv. Russian commanders told Mr Putin on Friday that Moscow’s troops had captured the strategically important city of Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine.
Mr Zelensky and Ukraine’s General Staff rejected that assertion, saying Ukrainian forces still controlled the city.
Kostyantynivka sits as one of the final barriers on the approach to the major Ukrainian-held cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk — a corridor that, if opened, would bring the Kremlin closer to what it has described as its ultimate objective in the Donbas.
Ukraine’s army spokesperson Andriy Kovalyov told AFP that “Ukrainian defenders continue to hold their positions along the designated defensive lines.”
“The situation remains difficult,” he said.
Mr Kovalyov acknowledged that small groups of Russian troops have been infiltrating the town, but said fighting was continuing.
Russia’s defence ministry offered a starkly different picture, saying: “Russian troops are in all parts of the town – from the southern to northern outskirts”.
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly turned down talks with the Ukrainian president to end the war
Mr Zelensky dismissed Russia’s claim outright, calling it “just another Russian lie.”
“If Kostyantynivka were under Russian control, then perhaps Putin would have no problem meeting me there to find a diplomatic way to finally end this war,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on social media.
Mr Putin has repeatedly refused talks with Mr Zelensky aimed at ending the war, saying Russia intends to seize the remainder of eastern Ukraine by force.
The latest exchanges unfolded against a backdrop of widening strikes. Russia said Ukrainian drones hit an oil terminal in Saint Petersburg, Mr Putin’s hometown, and also struck a port near Finland, while another drone fell on the historic Peterhof complex without causing damage.
Moscow promised retaliation, saying it shot down almost 500 Ukrainian drones and 10 of Kyiv’s Flamingo missiles.
The Ukrainian attacks followed a Russian strike on Kyiv this week that killed 30 people, amid other strikes.
Mr Zelensky also said Ukraine struck the Kronstadt naval base in Saint Petersburg.
Ukraine has stepped up attacks inside Russian territory in recent months — reaching as far as the Urals, far from the front line — describing the campaign as a response to Russia’s grinding offensive.
On the diplomatic track, negotiations remain stuck. Moscow is demanding that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the entire Donetsk region — a condition Kyiv rejects.
