Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump ‘growing incredibly impatient’ with Putin over war, says Vance

Chinese drone experts have flown to Russia to conduct technical development work on military drones at a state-owned weapons manufacturer that is under Western sanctions, according to two European security officials and documents seen by Reuters.

The Chinese experts have visited arms maker IEMZ Kupol on more than half a dozen occasions since the second quarter of last year. During that time, Kupol also received shipments of Chinese-made attack and surveillance drones via a Russian intermediary, according to the documents and two officials.

Ukraine’s briefings of battlefield updates to the top US officials coordinating with Kyiv on the war could have made Donald Trump change his mind, officials said.

The US president has spent the recent days with his officials who are working to push for a stronger stance backing Ukraine, including Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg and new ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz, reported the Wall Street Journal.

“They updated Trump on current battlefield conditions, according to two people familiar with the situation, noting that Russia has made little progress in recent years,” the report said, citing officials.

This has led to Trump making a rhetorical shift and not a policy shift on the war in Ukraine, where he was previously pushing Kyiv to make some concessions.

Trump was also informed about Ukraine’s planned offensive which will need US intelligence support, the officials aware of the development said.

Donald Trump is growing impatient with Russia over its refusal to work towards an end to the war in Ukraine, US vice president JD Vance said.

“I believe the president is growing incredibly impatient with the Russians right now because he doesn’t feel like they’re putting enough on the table to end the war,” Vance said, speaking to reporters in North Carolina.

Trump’s second-in-command said their administration has engaged “in incredibly good faith negotiations with both the Russians and Ukrainians” but Moscow refuses to do the same.

“(Trump) wants this war to end, and he’s doing everything that he can to stop it. But, look, if the Russians refuse to negotiate in good faith, I think it’s going to be very, very bad for their country. That’s what the president made clear,” he said.

“Number two, the president has grown very confident that this war is bad for Russia. You hear me say this all the time. You hear the president say this all the time. The war is bad for Russia. It’s bad for Ukraine. It’s bad for America. We want the killing to stop. That remains the president’s position,” Vance said.

The U-turn from Trump this week regarding Ukraine’s fortunes in its fight against Russia is not a shift in position, but “an acknowledgment of the reality on the ground”, Vance said.

Donald Trump may be signalling that it is up to Europe to help Ukraine now, two officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, cautioned.

Trump on Tuesday said he believed Ukraine could retake all its land controlled by Russia and that Kyiv should act now with Moscow facing “big” economic problems, in a sudden and striking rhetorical shift in Ukraine’s favour.

“He seems to be saying his goodbyes, no? But that can change tomorrow. In any case: the cards are clear for us. We know what we should be doing,” a western European official said.

A senior eastern European diplomat said Trump’s Ukraine comments aimed to show “that he is starting to disengage by sending a message that it is Europe’s question”.

Donald Trump’s comments backing Kyiv to regain all of its territory from Russia have sparked a mixture of relief and suspicion that the US president is ready to leave Europe more to its own devices in supporting Ukraine.

“I think people are taking heart because it does suggest… that his understanding of the conflict has shifted,” Neil Melvin, director of International Security at RUSI, told Reuters about Trump’s comments.

“He has acknowledged that the conflict is more complicated and he’s clearly frustrated with Putin, so that I think it is perhaps a success for Ukrainian and European diplomacy that that explanation has got through.”

However, Trump is maintaining a strategic ambiguity around the conflict, encouraging Ukraine without committing US support, Melvin said.

“So the narrative around what he is saying has shifted but he still seems to be making it about distancing the US from leading on the conflict. He’s putting it back onto Europe all the time,” he said.

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban held a phone call with US president Donald Trump, discussing several issues including energy security in central Europe, Hungary’s foreign minister said yesterday.

Foreign minister Peter Szijjarto, after meeting Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, said that Hungary’s energy supply cannot be guaranteed without Russian gas and oil imports.

Ukraine says it has suffered an unspecified number of casualties after Russia hit an army training ground yesterday with two Iskander ballistic missiles, officials said.

The direct attack on the shelter made it impossible to prevent casualties despite taking security precautions, the military said in a statement.

The Ukrainian Ground Forces did not disclose the location of the strike.

“The relevant emergency services are working at the scene. The injured personnel are receiving all necessary medical assistance,” the statement said.

But in their latest bilateral, on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, things were unmistakably – indeed, unbelievably – calmer and friendlier. As the pair answered questions from the media, the US president was noticeably more assertive on the matter of Nato taking lethal action against Russian aggression, giving a simple “yes” to a query about drones or aircraft being shot down over Poland or elsewhere.