US president Donald Trump has said his latest “pretty long [phone] call” with Russian president Vladimir Putin trying to end the war in Ukraine resulted in “no progress at all” as fighting continued with several overnight drone strikes.
“I didn’t make any progress with him at all,” Mr Trump told reporters in brief comments at an air base outside Washington yesterday.
The US president also issued his first comments on the US decision to halt some weapon shipments for Ukraine. He defended the move, blaming his predecessor Joe Biden for sending too many weapons.
“We’re giving weapons, but we’ve given so many weapons. But we are giving weapons. And we’re working with them and trying to help them, but we haven’t… You know, Biden emptied out our whole country giving them weapons, and we have to make sure that we have enough for ourselves,” Mr Trump said.
The US has blocked a number of planned shipments to Ukraine that included Patriot air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, warning that its own domestic stockpiles were running low, but said that “robust” options for Kyiv were still available.
