US President Donald Trump said his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in a call Wednesday, told him “very strong” to respond to Ukrainian weekend drone attacks on Russian airfields.
“We discussed the attacks on Russian docked planes by Ukraine and various other attacks taking place by both sides,” Trump wrote.
“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that immediately led to peace.”
The call reportedly lasted an hour and 15 minutes, and was the first known contact with Putin since May 19th.
In a briefing with the government minister early on Wednesday, Putin made no mention of Ukraine’s bold operations within Russia on Sunday.
The bridge is an important part of Russia’s infrastructure, illegally constructed by Moscow after the unilateral annexation of the Ukrainian Peninsula in 2014.
Putin called the attack “certainly a terrorist act.” However, the Ukrainian SBU said the initial explosion was timed just before 5am when there were no civilians on or near the bridge.
The Russian leader also accused Kiev of not being interested in peace and questioned the value of weakening peace negotiations with Ukraine.
“What are you talking about? How can you negotiate with people who rely on fear?” he said.
The second round of in-person talks between Ukraine and Russia took place in Istanbul on Monday, with no major breakthroughs heading into a permanent ceasefire.
However, both sides agreed to another prisoner exchange, and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that serious illness and young soldiers would be exchanged.
During talks in Istanbul, Ukraine gave Moscow officials a list of hundreds of Ukrainian children deported by Russia.
“We’re talking about hundreds of children who have held territory that Russia has been illegally deported, relocated or temporarily occupied. We’re waiting for a response. The ball is in the Russian court,” Andri Yamak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, told Telegram.
What was the SpiderWeb tactic?
Ukrainian President Voldymeierzelensky said it took “a year and nine days from the start of the plan to effective execution.”
Kyiv was able to smuggle FPV drones deep in Russia and hide them inside trucks in mobile log cabins.
The roof of the cabin was then opened remotely and the drones launched an attack on Russian military bombers.
Social media footage widely shared by Russian media appears to show drones rising from internal containers while the panels are dumped on the road.
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy said Kyiv would not launch a drone strike against Russian strategic bombers if Moscow had sought a ceasefire.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine urged Russia to accept a 30-day ceasefire proposal that was repeatedly supported by Russia.
However, in a second round speech on Monday, Moscow again rejected the proposal.
“If there was a ceasefire, did the operation take place? No,” Zelensky explained, adding that while about half of the planes are not possible to repair, other planes will need considerable time to return to service.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) released new drone footage of “SpiderWeb” “SpiderWeb”, indicating that on Sunday Kyiv accurately attacked 41 Russian heavy military bombers.
The footage shows a first-person viewing drone from Ukraine that raided four Russian airfields. The Olenya Air Base border is located in the Riazan region, the Ivanovo region, the Bellaya Air Base in the Irkutsk region, the Irkutsk region located in the southeastern part of Siberia, 4,000km east, and the Olenya Air Base border in the Murmans Air Base in Russia.
Kiev said these were the airfields “based on” Russian strategic aviation. Damaged aircraft include the A-50, TU-95, TU-22, TU-160, and A-12 and IL-78.
Moscow uses these heavy bombers in daily attacks on Ukrainian cities.
The SBU also revealed that it used modern UAV control technology during this operation. It combined autonomous artificial intelligence algorithms with manual operator intervention.
Ukrainian security services say some of the UAVs will lose signals and will switch to artificial intelligence assistance missions following pre-planned routes. The warhead then approached a particular target and automatically exploded upon contact.
Previously, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 117 drones were being used in Operation Spiderweb, each with its own pilot.
Ukrainian military general staff confirmed on Tuesday that Russia lost 41 military aircraft.
