Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Donald Trump on a July 4 call lasting nearly 90 minutes in which the U.S. leader again offered to help end the Ukraine war, according to Russia’s foreign ministry.
The call came ahead of a critical NATO summit in Turkey starting Tuesday that the U.S. president plans to attend and as Russian forces stepped up efforts to take more of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region - a key objective for the Kremlin.
Ukraine meanwhile has continued to target Russian energy infrastructure.
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Putin personally congratulated Trump “and the entire American people on this significant holiday” — the 250th anniversary of the U.S. declaration of independence — the foreign ministry said.
The conversation, their fourth this year, was “businesslike and highly constructive,” the ministry said, adding that Trump had “reaffirmed his readiness to facilitate the earliest possible cessation of hostilities” in the Ukrainian conflict.
“The Russian side once again emphasized the preference for a political and diplomatic resolution to the conflict,” according to the foreign ministry, which claimed that “Kyiv and its European sponsors are banking on prolonging and even escalating the conflict.”
“Our president has outlined the reality of the situation on the battlefield, where the Russian Armed Forces are advancing confidently,” the ministry said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had also had a “very good call” with Trump on Saturday.
“There is a real prospect to put an end to this war, and America’s resolve is decisive,” Zelensky said.
The conflict will form the backdrop to the upcoming NATO summit after the U.S. announced last month that it would “rightsize its contributions to the NATO force model,” citing a need for the alliance to not over rely on U.S. forces.
Russia’s Donetsk claims
The Kremlin has long insisted that the conflict will only end when Russia has taken all of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. This weekend it claimed to have taken control of the town of Kostyantynivka in Donetsk, which the foreign ministry called an “important milestone.”
The Ukrainian military told CNN that small groups of Russian soldiers had infiltrated the town, but counter-sabotage operations were ongoing.
“Ukrainian defenders continue to hold their positions along designated lines,” it added.
One unit fighting in the town posted video of its soldiers there and said the Russian claim was “disinformation designed to create the illusion of success.”
“It is just another Russian lie, an attempt to generate some kind of a news story,” Zelensky said Saturday.
In recent months, Ukrainian forces have retaken some territory in the south of the country, and Russian gains have declined amid heavy losses.
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“Putin’s and the Russian military command’s exaggerated claims about Russian battlefield performance are part of a… narrative that seeks to portray a Russian victory in Ukraine as inevitable and Ukrainian frontlines as collapsing,” according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think-tank.
Ukraine has also stepped up missile and drone attacks against key Russian infrastructure in recent weeks, including oil refineries, ports and military factories.
On Saturday, Ukrainian drones struck an oil terminal in St. Petersburg that Zelensky said “generates revenue for Russia’s war.”
Over the past month, eight Russian oil refineries have been attacked, according to the Ukrainian military, with more than 60 storage tanks have destroyed or critically damaged.
Ukrainian drones have also targeted fuel and power facilities in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Satellite imagery posted by ISW shows far less electric light at night in Crimea now compared to a year ago.
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