Trump tells Putin he is ready to help end Ukraine conflict, Kremlin adviser says

President Donald Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday that ending the conflict in Ukraine was vital and he was ready to help, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said.

Ushakov, who said the two leaders spoke for 55 minutes, also said Trump told Putin that an agreement on ending the conflict in Iran was close.

“As regards the Ukrainian conflict, Donald Trump again emphasized that a cessation of hostilities was vital,” Ushakov told journalists in comments posted on the Kremlin website.

“He said he was ready to act with European partners and Kyiv, including in talks at the G7 summit,” he added, referring to the summit of G7 industrialized countries this week in the French resort of Evian.

He also quoted Trump as saying that a rapid resolution would allow “perspectives to open for a new quality of U.S.-Russian relations.”

Ushakov said Putin told the U.S. president that intensified Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets would not change the situation on the battlefield.

“In Evian, the Europeans and (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy will try to present everything to be precisely the opposite and will propose ideas aimed at dragging out the conflict and continuing hostilities,” Ushakov said.

In Washington, the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the telephone conversation.

Zelenskyy has said the strikes and a shift in momentum on the battlefield in Ukraine’s favor have opened a window of opportunity to reach a peace deal.

Ushakov said U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who have led U.S.-brokered negotiations aimed at ending the Ukraine war, would soon be undertaking another visit to Russia.

Diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine war have stalled as Washington remains focused on the conflict in Iran.

On the Iran conflict, Ushakov said Trump told the Kremlin leader that an agreement “was close and he expects that the results of the difficult but ultimately successful negotiations can be made public already today.”

Putin, he said, expressed satisfaction that the conflict “that was liable to inflame not only the region itself can, by all accounts, be stopped”.

Ushakov also said Putin congratulated Trump on his 80th birthday in an “informal” way and praised first lady Melania Trump for her efforts to reunite families during the conflict in Ukraine.

Attacks continue

Thirteen people were injured and the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a symbol of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural history, caught fire following a major Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital, authorities said early Monday, urging residents to take shelter.

The air attack damaged electricity lines and left 140,000 Kyiv residents without power, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that some houses and cars also caught fire after being hit by drone debris.

The central Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was seriously damaged in a direct attack, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s military administration, said in a separate Telegram post.

“A brutal assault on our people and our heritage. This is the true face of Russia’s Orthodox values,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on X, with her post showing the monastery buildings in flames.

The city was under a massive missile attack, with a high-rise apartment building also on fire, according to Kyiv authorities.

Drones continue to attack Kyiv from different directions, Ukraine’s Air Force said on Telegram, with explosions heard in the city, a Reuters witness said.

Neighboring Poland, a European Union and a NATO member, has scrambled its fighter jets and put ground-based air defense systems and radar reconnaissance on a state of readiness, Poland’s Armed Forces said in a post on X.

Most of Ukraine’s territory was under air raid warnings in the early hours of Monday.

Five emergency service rescues were killed and at least another five injured after a second Russian strike hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram, with attacks also in the region of Dnipro, according to social media posts by local authorities.

Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.

Ukraine has recently intensified attacks on Russian industrial and energy facilities, as it tries to deprive Moscow of revenues to bring the end to the war closer.

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.