Putin Rejects Peace Talks in 90-Minute Call With Trump, Vows to Fight Until ‘All Objectives’ Achieved

Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Donald Trump during a 90-minute phone call on Friday that Moscow will continue its war against Ukraine until it achieves “all his objectives,” ruling out any prospect of renewed peace talks, according to Russian foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov.

Ushakov, who briefed Russian state media after the call, said Putin “made it clear that Moscow will continue hostilities until it achieves all stated goals.” He said Putin also tried to convince Trump that Ukraine has “no prospects whatsoever” and that Russia has the outcome of the war “entirely in their hands” — even as Western reporting has noted Moscow’s recent advances slowing and Kyiv regaining ground in some areas.

Trump initiated the call to “warmly wish Putin a happy birthday, informally wish him success and well-being and pass on greetings from the First Lady,” Ushakov said, as reported by Ukrainian Pravda. Ushakov added that Trump said he would relay Putin’s message about peace talks to the Ukrainian government. “Neither wanted to be the first to hang up,” he said.

A diesel deal that blindsided Kyiv

The call came on the same day Washington lifted export sanctions to allow Russia to sell diesel fuel to the United States — a move Ukrainian officials said caught them off guard. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the arrangement a “weak decision” that would help finance Russia’s war effort, and a senior Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent that “it felt like a trap.”

According to EA WorldView’s reporting, Russia has partially lifted its own ban on diesel exports, permitting the sale of 500,000 tons of diesel to foreign markets, and Trump said the United States will purchase 300,000 tons in October. The export ban had been introduced in July amid Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries.

The diplomacy produced no breakthrough elsewhere: six hours of U.S.-organized talks in Miami on Friday — bringing together Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, Ukrainian negotiators and representatives from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the European Commission and NATO — ended without progress toward a settlement.

Strikes continue in Zaporizhzhia

Hours after the call, Russian forces struck a residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia with five guided aerial bombs, killing at least 20 people and injuring 18, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. Three children, including an 11-year-old boy, were among the dead.

Reporting based on coverage by the New York Post and EA WorldView.