Putin, struggling against Ukrainian drone offensive, holds 85-minute call with Trump on US 250th anniversary

Russian President Vladimir Putin held an 85-minute phone call with US President Donald Trump on the occasion of America's 250th Independence Day, as analysts say Ukraine's intensifying drone offensive has begun to stall Russian advances. The dynamic appears to have prompted Putin to play the card of improved ties with Washington in a bid to seize the diplomatic initiative.

According to TASS, Reuters and other news agencies, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said Saturday that Putin opened the call by congratulating Trump on the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Ushakov said the conversation lasted "exactly one hour and 25 minutes" and was conducted in a businesslike yet highly constructive atmosphere.

The call came ahead of next week's NATO summit in Turkey, and the two leaders discussed concrete steps toward resolving the war in Ukraine.

Trump expressed strong willingness to help find a resolution to the conflict and indicated he was prepared to send US envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner back to Moscow to continue mediation efforts, according to reports. Putin, for his part, gave Trump an unvarnished assessment of Russia's current battlefield situation in Ukraine.

The two leaders struck a warm tone, invoking the US-Soviet alliance during World War II. In a separate congratulatory message, the Kremlin said Russia and the United States, as the world's two largest nuclear powers, "bear special responsibility for international security," adding that "a constructive relationship built on equality and mutual benefit serves the interests of the entire international community."

Trump also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, completing back-to-back calls with both leaders in a display of nimble shuttle diplomacy. Zelensky described his conversation with Trump as "a very good call" on his X account.

Diplomatic observers have interpreted the call as a calculated strategic move by Putin. Two days earlier, on Thursday, Putin made a surprise visit to a frontline command post in military uniform — his first such appearance in roughly six months. Foreign media analyzed the visit as an attempt to dispel the perception, both at home and abroad, that Russia was losing ground to Ukraine's drone counteroffensive, and to project resolve at what he framed as a critical turning point in the war.

After receiving a briefing from military commanders claiming Russian forces had seized the key eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, Putin maintained a hardline posture, warning that "the more Ukraine attacks Russian civilian infrastructure, the more territory will be incorporated into a security buffer zone." He also escalated his rhetoric against the Zelensky government, dismissing its members as "actors who know how to do nothing else." Ukraine swiftly rebuffed the claim, calling the assertion that Kostiantynivka had fallen "yet another Russian lie" and saying the actual situation on the ground was different.