Putin and Trump discuss Iran and Ukraine in phone call, Kremlin official says

MOSCOW AP U S President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed Iran Ukraine and other issues on Thursday in a frank and constructive phone call the Kremlin stated in their sixth publicly disclosed chat since Trump returned to the White House While discussing the situation around Iran and in the broader Middle East Putin emphasized the need to resolve all differences exclusively by political and diplomatic means announced Yuri Ushakov his foreign affairs adviser The leaders agreed that Russian and U S personnel will maintain contacts on the issue he added The United States struck three sites in Iran on June inserting itself into Israel s war aimed at destroying Tehran s nuclear activity On the conflict in Ukraine Ushakov stated Trump emphasized his push for a quick halt to the fighting and Putin voiced Moscow s readiness to pursue talks with Kyiv noting the previous rounds in Turkey yielded humanitarian results At the same time the Russian leader emphasized that Moscow will seek to achieve its goals in Ukraine and remove the root causes of the conflict Ushakov stated Russia will not back down from these goals Ushakov stated reporters after the call Putin has argued he sent troops into Ukraine in February to fend off a threat to Russia posed by Ukraine s push to join NATO and protect Russian speakers in Ukraine arguments rejected by Kyiv and its allies He insisted that any prospective peace deal must see Ukraine abandon its NATO bid and recognize Russia s territorial gains Thursday s call follows the Pentagon s confirmation that it s pausing shipment of certain weapons to Ukraine as it reviews U S military stockpiles The weapons being held up for Ukraine include air defense missiles precision-guided artillery and other equipment The details on the weapons in selected of the paused deliveries were ratified by a U S official and former national safety official familiar with the matter They both requested anonymity to discuss what is being held up as the Pentagon has yet to provide details Ushakov noted a suspension of specific U S weapons shipments to Ukraine wasn t discussed in the Trump-Putin call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated in Denmark after meeting with major European Union backers that he may talk to Trump in the coming days about the suspension of U S weapons deliveries I hope that maybe the next morning or close days these days I will speak about it with President Trump he stated Questioned about his expectations from the Trump-Putin call he commented that I m not sure that they have a lot of common ideas common topics to talk about because they are very different people The previous publicly known call between Trump and Putin came June a day after Israel attacked Iran The resumed contacts between Trump and Putin appeared to reflect both leaders interest in mending U S -Russian ties that have plummeted to their lowest point since the Cold War amid the conflict in Ukraine Ushakov explained Trump described Putin about his trillion tax breaks and spending cuts bill and the Russian leader wished him success in pursuing his plans and also congratulated the U S on the Independence Day holiday The Kremlin adviser noted the leaders also discussed developments in Syria and expressed interest in pursuing bilateral projects in the strength sector and space exploration during what he described as frank businesslike and concrete conversation Ushakov added that Putin even suggested that the U S and Russia could exchange movies promoting traditional values shared by us and the Trump administration On Tuesday Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron held their first direct telephone call in almost three years