Putin, Trump discuss Ukraine in call ahead of NATO summit

Bloomberg News on Jul 5, 2026

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed Ukraine and the upcoming NATO summit in Turkey in a phone call Saturday, while Trump also spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart.

Putin congratulated Trump on the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence in the call that lasted 85 minutes, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in an audio message to reporters.

“The presidents naturally touched on the topic of a Ukrainian settlement, including in light of Trump’s upcoming participation in the NATO summit in Turkey on July 7-8,” Ushakov said. “The American president reaffirmed his readiness to facilitate a swift end to hostilities and the search for solutions to overcome the crisis.”

Ushakov said U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would continue their efforts at mediating a settlement and were ready to travel to Moscow when convenient. “The Russian side emphasized the preference for a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict, while taking into account fundamental Russian approaches,” he said.

Putin outlined the current situation on the battlefield to Trump and the pair “emphasized the importance of maintaining contact, including on military-political and economic issues,” Ushakov said. They also discussed the situation concerning Iran, according to the Kremlin aide.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also congratulated Trump on the U.S. anniversary during a phone call on Saturday. Both leaders discussed the situation on the front line as well as diplomatic efforts, Zelenskyy said in an X post.

Trump will join fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders in Turkey for a summit starting on Tuesday. The U.S. president has pushed other alliance members to take on more of the financial burden in defending Europe, while also ordering the Pentagon to cut troop levels on the continent — a move that blindsided allies — and slashing the military assets Washington would potentially provide in a crisis.

Germany’s foreign ministry said continued support for Ukraine’s defense would be a focus at the gathering in Ankara after Russia on Thursday carried out one of its most intense airstrikes of the year so far against Kyiv, killing 30 people in the Ukrainian capital. Moscow’s forces also targeted the Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Cherkasy regions. Zelenskyy spoke on Saturday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has expanded the range and intensity of its drone and missile strikes inside Russia, triggering alerts across nearly half of the regions in the world’s largest country so far this year. Kyiv has also stepped up attacks against Russia’s oil refineries, forcing outages at the facilities and causing gasoline shortages.

Trump and Putin spoke last month in what Ushakov called a “friendly and frank” discussion on the occasion of the U.S. president’s 80th birthday. At that time Ushakov also said Witkoff and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, planned to return to Russia soon, without elaborating.

U.S.-brokered talks to end Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now well into its fifth year, have stalled amid the war on Iran.

Putin said late Friday that Russian forces had taken control of Kostiantynivka, a strategic logistics center in Ukraine’s fortified eastern Donetsk region.

Zelenskyy dismissed the Russian claim as untrue on Saturday, calling it “another Russian lie to generate some kind of news,” in a post on X. He said the heavily bombarded city remained under Ukraine’s command.

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