Trump says end of conflict 'much closer'

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/KYIV — US President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that the Russia-Ukraine conflict, now in its fifth year, is nearing a conclusion.

"He (Russian President Vladimir Putin) wants to end it, and Ukraine wants to end it. We're in talks, and we'll see if we can get it ended," Trump told reporters. "I think we are getting much closer than people realize."

Trump said his administration has been in contact with both Russia and Ukraine in attempts to end their conflict, which is also on the agenda of the NATO summit.

Trump made his remarks after speaking over the weekend with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. He gave no specific reason for his assertion that a solution to the conflict was in sight.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he believed the US position on how to resolve the conflict remained unchanged.

But Zelensky, interviewed by the Financial Times, said he believed the US president was viewing the conflict in a new light in view of recent "Ukrainian successes".

"President Trump wants to be where there's success," the newspaper quoted Zelensky as saying.

Trump said he had held a "good call" with Putin on the Fourth of July holiday, a conversation a Kremlin aide said lasted 85 minutes and was marked by the US president offering to help find a way to move toward peace.

"And President Zelensky actually wants it to end now. And we're going to be going to NATO, and we're going to be talking about it, and I think we're going to get it," he said.

Trump is scheduled to meet Zelensky on Wednesday on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara and a US official told Reuters the idea of the talks was to make a renewed push to end the conflict.

The same official said Trump would likely follow up with Putin after talking to Zelensky.

On the front line, Moscow came under the largest Ukrainian drone attack in the past two years overnight, with over 400 unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, launched toward the capital.

"From evening until 6:00 am, more than 430 drones were flying toward the Moscow region. Most were neutralized by air defense forces at distant approaches. Thirty-six enemy UAVs were destroyed on approach to Moscow," Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on Tuesday on social media. There were no immediate reports of casualties or significant damage in Moscow.

On Monday, Kyiv's military said it had struck three Russian oil refineries — including the country's largest in Omsk, more than 2,414 kilometers away — as well as two "shadow fleet" vessels in the Sea of Azov.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said at least 24 people had been killed and dozens of others injured in the latest Russian attacks on Kyiv and its surrounding region.

Search and rescue operations were still underway on Monday evening at the sites of destroyed residential high-rise buildings in two districts of the capital, the State Service for Emergencies said.

Russia's defense ministry said on Monday that its forces had conducted a "massive" attack on Kyiv and other locations with long-range, high-precision air-, land-, sea-launched weapons and drones.

XINHUA-AGENCIES