Russia launched more than 100 drones into Ukraine following the conclusion of a phone call between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s air force said, and as the world waited for what Trump said would be an immediate resumption of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.
Ukraine’s air force wrote on Telegram that its forces shot down 35 of the 108 Russian drones launched into the country overnight, with a further 58 jammed or otherwise neutralized while in flight. The air force reported damage on the ground in four Ukrainian regions.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down eight Ukrainian drones overnight.
Cross-border drone exchanges occur near-nightly and have increased in size and sophistication throughout the 3-year-old war. Monday night’s barrage came despite Trump’s latest assurance that a peace deal between the two sides is possible, following a phone call with Putin that lasted two hours.
“I think something’s going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after the call. “It’s a very, very big egos involved, I tell you, big egos involved. But I think something’s going to happen. And if I thought that President Putin did not want to get this over with, I wouldn’t even be talking about it because I’d just pull out.”
Despite the failure of peace talks to date — including a chaotic meeting between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators in Istanbul, Turkey, last week — Trump still appeared confident of success.
