Ukraine-Russia war live: Trump says Putin call ended in ‘no progress at all’ and defends weapon supply halt

The Kremlin has said Russian president Vladimir Putin’s phone call with his US counterpart Donald Trump was “frank and constructive”, even as the US president said he made “no progress at all”.

This is the sixth publicly disclosed call between the two leaders since Mr Trump returned to the White House. The two discussed the Ukraine war, the situation around Iran and in the broader Middle East.

Their chat was “businesslike and straight-to-the-point,” said Yuri Ushakov, Mr Putin’s foreign affairs adviser. He added that Mr Trump and Mr Putin were “on the same wavelength”.

While discussing the Middle East, Mr Putin emphasised the need to resolve all differences “exclusively by political and diplomatic means,” the Russian official said.

The leaders agreed that Russian and US officials will maintain contact on the issue, he added.

President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke by phone yesterday after a top US defence official ordered a halt to arms shipments to Ukraine that would have been used to defend against invading Russian forces.

Mr Trump announced the call on his Truth Social account and said the conversation would take place at 10am ET.

The last time the two leaders spoke was on 14 June amid the Israeli-Iranian conflict that ended after Mr Trump ordered US bombers to attack a trio of Iranian nuclear sites and subsequently negotiated a ceasefire between the two nations.

Ten days before that, they also spoke on the same topic, at which point Mr Putin had offered to assist in the then-ongoing US nuclear talks with Tehran.

Andrew Feingberg reports from Washington DC:

At least 14 people were injured in Ukraine’s capital as Russia pummelled Kyiv with drones in an all-night attack, just hours after US president Donald Trump spoke to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The massive barrage of Russian drones has damaged railway infrastructure and set buildings and cars on fire throughout the city, authorities in the Ukrainian capital said in the early hours today.

More than eight hours into air raid alerts and just before they were called off at 5am (0200 GMT), Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 12 of the injured were hospitalised.

A photo shared by Oliver Carroll, foreign correspondent for The Economist, showed the dawn skies filled with huge clouds of grey smoke.

“Another air raid alert in Kyiv. It’s been pretty unrelenting since 1am, so 4 hrs now. Part of this is about Russian launch capacities: they can’t do everything in one go. But part is about tactics of exhaustion: of air defence workers; and of the population as a whole,” he wrote in a post on X.

Ukraine launched a drone attack on the Sergiyev Posad district near Moscow, injuring at least one person and with explosions reported in at least four locations, the head of the district Oksana Yerokhanova said in the early hours today.

“I ask everyone to remain calm, not to approach the windows, not to photograph the work of the air defence,” Ms Yerokhanova wrote in a post on her Telegram channel.

In his first public comments defending the halting of weapons shipments to Ukraine, president Donald Trump has complained that the US provided too much already under the previous administration.

Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One for a flight to Iowa, Mr Trump said former president Joe Biden “emptied out our whole country giving them weapons, and we have to make sure that we have enough for ourselves”.

At a time Russia is escalating its offensive on the frontline, the US has withheld air defence missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons.

Mr Trump also suggested he wasn’t completely cutting off American assistance to Ukraine.

“We’ve given so many weapons,” he said, adding that “we are working with them and trying to help them”.

US president Donald Trump said his phone call earlier in the day with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin resulted in no progress at all on efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

“I didn’t make any progress with him at all,” Mr Trump told reporters in brief comments at an air base outside Washington, before departing for a campaign-style event in Iowa.

A Kremlin aide said the Russian president reiterated that Moscow would keep pushing to solve the conflict’s “root causes.”

The two leaders did not discuss a recent pause in some US weapons shipments to Kyiv during the nearly hour-long conversation, according to a readout provided by Mr Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov.