Russian President Vladimir Putin assured US President Trump in a phone call on Tuesday that Moscow doesn't harbor aggressive tendencies toward Europe, a senior Kremlin official said, after European officials expressed concern about Russian sabotage campaigns on their soil. Also on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that US envoys who visited Kyiv presented some "very good, worthwhile ideas" for ending Russia's 4 1/2-year-old war, adding that he hopes to meet with Trump within two weeks, per the AP. Russia, however, remains determined to accomplish its military goals and it believes it's close to winning, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Ukrainian and Western observers believe that Moscow has been unable to make any significant progress on the front line. The war could drag on for even more years as Russia reconstitutes its forces and its defense industry, said Elbridge Colby, the US undersecretary of defense for policy. "We must be prepared for a protracted conflict and for Ukraine's requirements to persist in the months and years ahead," Colby told an online meeting of countries helping Ukraine.
US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff visited Moscow and Kyiv for separate talks with Putin and Zelensky over the weekend, but the meetings appeared to produce no substantial breakthrough on ending the fighting, and both countries resumed their deadly air war after a weekend truce in their capitals for the US visitors. The attacks killed at least five civilians and wounded 25 others in Kyiv, officials said, while officials from Russia reported three people killed and 13 wounded in areas it controls. Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign affairs adviser, told reporters that "in view of the speculation about Russia's alleged hostile intentions toward European countries, it was underlined that we don't have any aggressive plans regarding Europe."
Ushakov also said Putin told Trump about the combat situation in Ukraine and Russia's plans to make battlefield gains and achieve its military goals. He said that Moscow has a positive view of the results of the weekend visit to Moscow by Witkoff and Kushner. Zelensky said he's counting on meeting with Trump around Sept. 20—about the same time that the UN General Assembly is being held in New York. He indicated he will press Trump to provide more Patriot air defense systems that Kyiv needs to counter Russia's ballistic missiles. More here.
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