WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/KYIV: US President Donald Trump again expressed frustration on Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the intensifying Ukraine conflict, a day after warning that Putin was “playing with fire” by resisting ceasefire talks while escalating drone and missile attacks.
But Trump also told reporters in the Oval Office that he was not yet prepared to impose new sanctions on Russia because he did not want the penalties to scuttle a potential peace deal.
Russia has proposed holding the next round of direct talks with Ukraine on June 2 in Istanbul, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. There was no immediate response from Kyiv.
The public squabble between the US and Russia unfolded as the three-year-old war heats up, with swarms of drones launched by both Russia and Ukraine and Russian troops advancing at key points along the front.
Delegates from Russia and Ukraine met earlier this month in Istanbul under pressure from Trump to end the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War Two, but the talks failed to yield the ceasefire that Kyiv and its Western allies have pushed for. Moscow said certain conditions needed to be met before a ceasefire agreement.
Asked whether the Russian leader might be intentionally delaying negotiations, Trump said, “We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not, and if he is, we’ll respond a little differently.”
After speaking to Trump on May 19, Putin said he had agreed to work with Ukraine on a memorandum which would set out the contours of a peace accord including the timing of a ceasefire.
Ukraine has not yet officially agreed to Russia’s proposed meeting on June 2. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on Wednesday that Kyiv had already submitted its memorandum on a potential settlement and called on Russia to produce its version immediately, rather than waiting until next week.
“We are not opposed to further meetings with the Russians and are awaiting their ‘memorandum’, so that the meeting won’t be empty and can truly move us closer to ending the war,” Umerov said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov spoke to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday about Moscow’s preparation of “concrete proposals” for upcoming talks in Istanbul but gave no details.
Putin’s demands for ending the war include a written pledge from Western leaders that NATO will not expand eastward to former Soviet republics such as Ukraine and Georgia and the lifting of some sanctions on Russia, according to Russian sources with knowledge of the negotiations.
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump had warned Putin that he was “playing with fire” and that “really bad” things would have happened to Russia already if not for Trump himself.
Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, told a state TV reporter that Trump’s remark suggested he is not well-briefed on the realities of the war.

War heating up
Russia said on Wednesday it had downed 296 Ukrainian drones over 13 regions overnight, while Ukraine’s military said it had struck several Russian weapon production sites.
Ukraine said Russia had launched 88 drones and five ballistic missiles.
After Russia said in late April it had ejected Ukrainian forces from the western Kursk region, Moscow’s forces have pushed over the border into the neighboring Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine and taken several villages there.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia has gathered 50,000 troops near the northern Sumy region, but added that Kyiv had taken steps to prevent Moscow from conducting a large-scale offensive there.
Speaking in Berlin during a visit by Zelensky, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Germany and Ukraine will develop the joint production of long-range missiles, a move the Kremlin said was irresponsible and amounted to stoking the war.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said that the US-led NATO military alliance was using the Ukrainian crisis to build up its presence across eastern Europe and the Baltic but that Russia was advancing along the entire front in Ukraine.
Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.
Russia currently controls just under one fifth of Ukraine. Though Russian advances have accelerated over the past year, the war is costing both Russia and Ukraine dearly in terms of casualties and military spending.

SINGAPORE: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will try to convince Asian defense leaders this weekend that the United States is a more trusted partner for the region than China, US officials told Reuters, as questions linger about the Trump administration’s commitment to the region.
Hegseth, who has spent a large portion of his first months on the job focused on domestic issues, countering diversity, equity and inclusion in the military and taking aim at the press, will make his first extended remarks in Singapore on Saturday about how he envisions US defense policy in the Indo-Pacific.
He will be addressing the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier security forum, which runs this year from May 31-June 1. Defense ministers, senior military and security officials and diplomats from around the world are expected to attend. French President Emmanuel Macron will deliver the keynote address on Friday.
“Secretary Hegseth is going to make the case to Asian allies about why the United States is a better partner than the CCP,” said a senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official, who was using an acronym for China’s Communist Party, said Hegseth had the opportunity to take advantage of Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun’s expected absence from the dialogue, where US and Chinese delegates have locked horns in previous years.
Hegseth’s speech will be closely watched as it comes after President Donald Trump has lashed out at traditional allies, most recently with tariffs.
Hegseth has also roiled allies in Europe. In February, he warned Europe against treating America like a “sucker” while addressing a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“There’s certainly uncertainty being expressed, and sometimes I think it’s probably fair to characterize it as a concern,” a second senior US defense official said, referring to anxiety among Asian allies.
General Dan Caine, the recently confirmed US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is also expected to attend the dialogue.
Some of the Trump administration’s early moves in the Indo-Pacific have raised eyebrows. The US moved air defense systems from Asia to the Middle East earlier this year as tensions with Iran spiked — an effort which took 73 C-17 flights.
But Hegseth visited the Philippines and Japan in March, a trip in which experts said the secretary stuck by the more traditional importance of allies.
Ely Ratner, who was the Pentagon’s top official on China under the Biden administration, said allies in Asia were seeking a consistent policy from Hegseth.
“The region will be watching closely as to whether the US secretary of defense that shows up at Shangri-la looks like the one that traveled to the Philippines and Japan or has more of the harder edge that we’ve seen from the Trump administration in Europe,” said Ratner.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, was only narrowly confirmed as defense secretary in January. He has moved with stunning speed to reshape the department, firing top generals and admirals as he seeks to implement Trump’s national security agenda.
His leadership has been under intense scrutiny after it was revealed that he shared sensitive war plans on Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in two signal group chats. Trump has stuck by him through the turmoil.
Hegseth will likely get a friendly audience at the Shangri-La Dialogue, said Greg Poling, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank.
“Asian allies, and particularly the Philippines, feel a lot more reassured than our European allies, but there’s always going to be that voice in the back of their head,” Poling said.
Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, who is co-leading a bi-partisan delegation to the Shangri-la Dialogue, said her aim was to reassure Asian allies that the United States was committed, a message she said Hegseth was not capable of delivering.
“He’s only got this job because he sucked up to President Trump and looked good on Fox News. So let’s be clear about the capabilities of the secretary of defense,” Duckworth told Reuters.