A fresh round of telephone diplomacy between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump has failed to produce any forward movement in resolving the war in Ukraine, despite rising international pressure for a negotiated ceasefire.
The one-hour phone conversation on Thursday night marked the sixth such exchange between the two leaders in six months, yet ended with both sides reaffirming hardened positions.
“Russia will not back down,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters after the call, although he noted that Putin had expressed a “readiness” to “seek a political and negotiated solution to the conflict”.
The Kremlin has continued to portray its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 as a response to NATO’s eastward expansion, particularly Ukraine’s stated intention to join the Western military alliance. “Russia will eliminate every root cause of the conflict in Ukraine,” Putin reportedly told Trump, warning that his forces would not allow Kyiv to achieve any war objective.
The term “root cause”, frequently employed by Moscow, is widely viewed as a justification for its 2022 offensive and its broader effort to keep Ukraine out of NATO’s orbit.
Trump, for his part, confirmed that the call had ended with “no meaningful progress” and reiterated his dissatisfaction with Kyiv’s war policies. “I was not happy,” he remarked, casting doubt on Ukraine’s current strategy and performance.
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The call comes days after Trump, while addressing the NATO summit in The Hague, announced a significant shift in US policy — stating that Washington would no longer supply critical weaponry, including Patriot air defence systems, to Ukraine. The decision is being framed as part of a domestic policy realignment and a break from the commitments made by the previous Biden administration.
The Pentagon, earlier this week, confirmed that deliveries promised under Biden to Ukraine’s military supply chain would be halted, further complicating Kyiv’s efforts to hold its defensive lines.
Despite repeated conversations, the two leaders have yet to meet in person to discuss the conflict. However, Putin has signalled that he may be open to face-to-face talks with Trump in an effort to pursue a diplomatic resolution.
“The war is now at a stage where Western backing is proving insufficient to reverse Russia’s battlefield momentum,” said one Western diplomatic observer. Analysts warn that the balance of power could shift further if the US maintains its arms freeze.
The Ukraine war remains Europe’s deadliest conflict since the Second World War. Moscow has long viewed Ukraine as a strategic buffer against NATO, and Putin’s government has treated Kyiv’s aspiration to join the alliance as an existential threat.
Geopolitical analysts argue that NATO’s eastward expansion breached earlier commitments made during the post-Cold War era. “NATO was acting in contravention to its earlier stated position in which they promised the bloc was not going to expand eastward, especially towards Russia,” experts said. Several states have joined the alliance since, but Ukraine’s potential membership remains the most contentious.
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