'No progress' in Washington-Moscow call

HOUSTON/KYIV — US President Donald Trump said he did not make any progress during his phone call on Thursday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over Iran and the Ukraine conflict.

"No, I didn't make any progress with him today at all," Trump told reporters. "I'm not happy about that."

"We had a call. It was a pretty long call. We talked about a lot of things, including Iran, and we also talked about, as you know, the war with Ukraine," said Trump.

During the phone call, which lasted about an hour, Putin said that Moscow would achieve its goals in the conflict with Ukraine, including the elimination of its root causes, according to Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov.

Ushakov said Russia is ready for a third round of talks with Ukraine, adding that Putin and Trump did not discuss the specifics of what would be discussed during the possible negotiations.

Putin and Trump confirmed their mutual interest in implementing a series of economic projects between Russia and the US, including in energy and space, Ushakov said.

The Kremlin described the conversation as "frank and constructive" — the sixth publicly disclosed chat between the two leaders since Trump returned to the White House.

Trump complained on Thursday that the US provided too many weapons to Ukraine under the previous administration — his first public comments on the pause in some shipments.

He said former president Joe Biden "emptied out our whole country giving them weapons, and we have to make sure that we have enough for ourselves".

Air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons are among those being withheld from Ukraine.

Trump suggested he wasn't completely cutting off US assistance to Ukraine. "We've given so many weapons," he said, adding that "we are working with them and trying to help them."

Within hours of the call between Trump and Putin, a Russian drone attack sparked a fire at an apartment building in the northern suburb of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said, indicating little change in the trajectory of the conflict.

Russia pummeled Kyiv with drones in an all-night attack, injuring at least 23 people, damaging railway infrastructure and setting buildings and cars on fire throughout the city, authorities in the Ukrainian capital said early on Friday.

Meanwhile, Ukraine launched a drone attack on the town of Sergiyev Posad near Moscow early on Friday, injuring one person and leaving parts of the religiously significant place without power, the head of the district said.