Vladimir Putin has said he will respond “very strongly” to Ukraine's major drone attack on Russian airbases, US President Donald Trump has warned.
Speaking after a phone call with the Russian president, Trump said: "President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields." Moscow said that military options were "on the table".
Trump also said that his phone call Putin would not "lead to immediate peace" between Russia and Ukraine. Russian state media said Putin told Trump that Ukraine has tried to "disrupt" negotiations and that the government in Kyiv has "essentially turned into a terrorist organisation".
It was the first conversation between the two leaders since Ukraine launched its surprise attack on Russian military airbases using drones, destroying what it said were nuclear-capable long-range bombers. Trump is reported to have told Putin in the call that the US was not warned in advance of the attack.
A week ago Trump appeared to set a two-week deadline for Putin, threatening to change how the US is responding to Russia if he believed Putin was "tapping" him along on peace efforts in Ukraine. It was one of a string of critical remarks by Trump, who on 26 May said that Putin had gone "absolutely crazy" and was "playing with fire", after Russia stepped up drone and missile attacks on cities in Ukraine, killing dozens of civilians.
The leaders’ phone call comes days after a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul between the warring sides ended without a breakthrough, although they agreed to swap more prisoners of war. Ukrainian negotiators said Russia had rejected an "unconditional ceasefire”, a key demand of Kyiv and its Western allies including the US.