By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has given a “very promising statement” about reaching a truce with Ukraine, U.S. President Donald J. Trump said after Moscow experienced its bloodiest Ukrainian drone attack.
“We’re getting words that things are going okay in Russia, but that doesn’t mean anything until we hear what the final outcome is,” Trump stressed when talking to reporters in the Oval Office.
On Putin’s first reaction, he explained that it was “a very promising statement, but it wasn’t complete,” and added, “I would love to meet with him or talk to him, but we have to get it over with fast.”
The move by Putin came as Moscow was still reeling Thursday from an unprecedented drone attack by Ukraine that Russian officials said killed at least three employees of a meat warehouse.
Tuesday’s drone attack also injured some 17 others and caused a short shutdown at the Russian capital’s four airports, according to authorities.
A total of 343 drones were downed over Russia, including 91 over the Moscow region and 126 over the western region of Kursk, where Ukrainian forces have been pulling back, as well as near the Kursk nuclear power plant, the defense ministry said.
VISITING KURSK
However, Russia made progress on the frontlines in its region, Kursk, which had been entered by Ukrainian troops to give Kyiv leverage in peace talks.
Putin visited Kursk Thursday for the first time since Ukraine partly invaded the Russian region in a surprise August 2024 offensive.
The Russian president expressed hope his army was on the brink of “fully liberating” Kursk after it claimed to have retaken 24 settlements in the past five days and warned Ukrainian forces they would be treated as “terrorists.”
Minutes after Putin’s remarks aired, Ukraine’s army commander-in-chief, Gen Oleksandr Syrski, suggested his troops were pulling back to minimize losses. “In the most difficult situation, my priority has been and remains saving the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. To this end, the units of the defense forces, if necessary, maneuver to more favorable positions,” Syrski said on social media in terms typically used to describe a withdrawal.
And in an apparent response to Ukraine’s drone attack on Moscow, Russia unleashed a deadly missile strike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown Wednesday. The attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed a 47-year-old woman and wounded at least nine other people, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak said.
With suffering on both sides continuing, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said that Ukraine accepted a 30-day ceasefire with Russia after critical peace talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia.
AGAIN AID
Officials confirmed that Washington has, in turn, lifted its pause on military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv.
After eight hours of negotiations in the port city of Jeddah, the peace terms were jointly signed and will be presented to Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who represented Washington in Saudi Arabia, said.
The ball is now in Moscow’s court, said Rubio. On Thursday, President Trump appeared optimistic that the two nations could agree on a ceasefire. “Thousands of young people on both sides are dying. I have seen horrible pictures. This has to stop,” the president said while meeting Mark Rutte, the secretary general of the NATO military alliance.
“Well, we’d like to see a cease-fire from Russia,” as a start, he stressed. “And we have, you know, not been working in the dark. We’ve been discussing … Ukraine land and pieces of land that would be kept and lost, and all of the other elements of a final agreement.”
Additionally, “There’s a power plant involved. You know, very big power plant involved,” Trump said, likely referring to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant currently occupied by Russia.
“Who’s going to get the power plant, and who’s going to get this and that? And so, you know, it’s, it’s not an easy process. But phase 1 is the ceasefire,” Trump noted.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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