Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his US counterpart that Moscow was ready to hold the next round of peace talks in Kyiv after June 22, once the prisoner exchanges are complete.
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is yet to respond to the Russian offer. Though there are possibilities that he may agree to sit down for the next round of talks as Kyiv is facing intense pressure on its Northeastern front in Sumy and also in Odessa.
"Both leaders expressed satisfaction with their personal relations" during the call, in which they also discussed the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, the Kremlin said.
Trump, in his Truth social post, said, “Putin called to very nicely wish me a Happy Birthday" on the day he turned 79, but that "more importantly", the two discussed the Iran-Israel crisis.
"He feels, as do I, this war in Israel-Iran should end, to which I explained, his war should also end," Trump said, referring to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Zelensky recently complained that the US was using a warm tone against Russia and that it would not help in ending the conflict, though he forgot to mention his two back-to-back drone attacks that rendered Russia’s aircraft useless in Siberia.
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"Any signals of reduced aid or of treating Ukraine and Russia as equals are deeply unfair. Russia is the aggressor. They started this war. They do not want to end it," the Ukrainian President wrote on X.
"We would like to see aid to Ukraine not decrease because of this," he said. "Last time, this was a factor that slowed down aid to Ukraine."
Earlier on Saturday, Ukraine and Russia swapped prisoners in the fourth such exchange this week, part of a large-scale plan to bring back 1,000 wounded prisoners from each side and return the bodies of killed soldiers.
Meanwhile, Russia intensified its advances along the front line, especially in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy, where it seeks to establish a "buffer zone".
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