The long-running Russia-Ukraine war appears to have entered a new phase after major developments over the weekend and ahead of a crunch NATO summit. Back and forth madness.
In the last 72 hours, U.S. President Donald Trump purportedly held separate calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian drones struck an oil terminal and port in St. Petersburg and the surrounding area and Russia launched its second large-scale attack on Kyiv in less than a week. The prospect of renewed diplomacy, alongside the risk of escalation, has put investors on notice at a time when markets are trying to price geopolitical risk, energy security and the integrity of Europe’s defense spending pledges. “There is a real prospect to put an end to this war, and America’s resolve is decisive,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post.
Ukraine’s president said he’d discussed the latest situation on the frontline after more than four years of conflict and had agreed with Trump to continue talks at the NATO summit. Heads of state from 32 countries are expected in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, for the two-day conference. The Kremlin, meanwhile, said Sunday that Trump spoke with Putin for 90 minutes over the weekend, during which the U.S. president offered to help find a solution to the war. Yury Ushakov, a Kremlin aide, described the conversation as “businesslike and very constructive,” according to Russian state news outlet RIA Novosti.
“There are enormous prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries. To achieve this, Donald Trump emphasized, it would be necessary to end the Ukrainian conflict as soon as possible,” Ushakov told reporters. A White House spokesperson was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC. The U.S. president, who repeatedly said on the 2024 campaign trail that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in one day if elected, has signaled the potential for renewed American support of Kyiv following the signing of an interim peace deal with Iran.