Native residents stroll previous burning garages exterior a residential constructing following a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on July 6, 2026, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
Genya Savilov | Afp | Getty Pictures
The long-running Russia-Ukraine warfare seems to have entered a brand new section after main developments over the weekend and forward of a crunch NATO summit.
Within the final 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 encircling space and Russia launched its second large-scale assault on Kyiv in lower than every week.
The prospect of renewed diplomacy, alongside the danger of escalation, has put traders on discover at a time when markets try to cost geopolitical danger, power safety and the integrity of Europe’s protection spending pledges.
“There’s a actual prospect to place an finish to this warfare, and America’s resolve is decisive,” Zelenskyy mentioned in a social media put up on Saturday.
What Trump mentioned with Putin and Zelenskyy
Ukraine’s president mentioned he’d mentioned the newest scenario on the frontline after greater than 4 years of battle and had agreed with Trump to proceed talks on the NATO summit. Heads of state from 32 international locations are anticipated in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, from Tuesday for the two-day convention.
The Kremlin, in the meantime, mentioned Sunday that Trump spoke with Putin for 90 minutes over the weekend, throughout which the U.S. president provided to assist discover a resolution to the warfare.
Yury Ushakov, a Kremlin aide, described the dialog as “businesslike and really constructive,” in line with Russian state information outlet RIA Novosti.
US President Donald Trump waves whereas arriving on the White Home in Washington, DC, US, on Sunday, July 5, 2026.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
“There are huge prospects for mutually useful cooperation between our international locations. To attain this, Donald Trump emphasised, it might be vital to finish the Ukrainian battle as quickly as attainable,” Ushakov instructed reporters.
A White Home spokesperson was not instantly accessible to remark when contacted by CNBC on Monday.
The U.S. president, who repeatedly mentioned on the 2024 marketing campaign path that he might finish the Russia-Ukraine warfare in at some point if elected, has signaled the potential for renewed American assist of Kyiv following the signing of an interim peace take care of Iran.
This suggestion, alongside a flurry of deep-strike successes by Ukraine, has prompted some analysts to conclude that the warfare could possibly be shifting in Kyiv’s favor, with Putin not too long ago acknowledging the influence of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian gasoline manufacturing for the primary time.
Ukraine has stepped up assaults on Russian oil amenities and army property in latest weeks, in search of to chop off Moscow’s power revenues and attempt to increase the political stress on the Kremlin.
Ukraine strikes Russian oil terminal
Ukrainian officers reported that forces struck a serious oil terminal in Russia’s second-largest metropolis, St. Petersburg, in addition to the Kronstadt Naval Base, the principle base of the Russian Baltic Fleet, on Friday and Saturday. The assaults reportedly brought about fires at each the oil terminal and the army facility.
In response, Russian missiles and drones hammered Ukraine’s capital within the early hours of Monday, killing no less than 11 folks and closely damaging residential high-rise buildings, authorities mentioned. The assault, which comes on the eve of the NATO summit, follows a separate lethal assault on Kyiv final week.
Researchers on the Institute for the Research of Struggle (ISW), a Washington-based suppose tank, mentioned Putin had sought to emphasise that Ukraine’s European companions had a false notion of the battlefield realities, citing Ushakov’s account of the decision.
As a substitute, Putin was mentioned to have instructed Trump concerning the “actual” frontline scenario through which Russian troops are advancing, with Putin claiming that Russian forces had seized the japanese city of Kostyantynivka.
On this pool {photograph} distributed by the Russian state company Sputnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin meets with the Kursk area governor in Moscow on June 30, 2026.
Gavriil Grigorov | Afp | Getty Pictures
Russia’s claims of advance come because the Trump administration has more and more spoken publicly about Ukrainian successes on the battlefield, together with mid- to long-range assaults on Russian army property and power infrastructure, the ISW mentioned in its newest evaluation.
“Putin and different Kremlin officers are possible purposefully injecting the false narratives that Russian forces will imminently seize the rest of Donetsk Oblast into the Western info house with the intention to persuade the West to capitulate to the calls for that Russia can not safe militarily,” ISW researchers mentioned Sunday.
