Local residents walk past burning garages outside a residential building following a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian capital of kyiv, July 6, 2026, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Genia Savilov | Afp | Getty Images
The long term Russia-Ukraine War seems to have entered a new phase after the major developments of the weekend and before a crisis NATO Summit.
Over the past 72 hours, US President Donald Trump reportedly had separate calls with Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr ZelenskyUkrainian drones struck an oil terminal and port in and around St. Petersburg and Russia launched its second large-scale attack To Kyiv in less than a week.
The prospect of renewed diplomacy, as well as the risk of escalation, has alerted investors at a time when markets are trying to price things out. geopolitical risk, energy security and the integrity of Europe’s defense spending commitments.
“There is a real prospect of ending this war, and America’s resolve is decisive,” Zelensky said. said in a social media post on Saturday.
What Trump discussed with Putin and ZelenskyThe Ukrainian president said he discussed the latest situation on the front line after more than four years of conflict and agreed with Trump to continue negotiations at the NATO summit. Heads of state from 32 countries are expected in Ankara, the Turkish capital, from Tuesday for this two-day conference.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, said on Sunday that Trump spoke with Putin for 90 minutes over the weekend, during which the US president offered to help find a solution to the war.
Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin aide, called the conversation “serious and very constructive,” according to the official Russian news agency. RIA Novosti.
U.S. President Donald Trump greets as he arrives at the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., Sunday, July 5, 2026.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“There are huge prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries. To achieve this, Donald Trump emphasized, it would be necessary to end the Ukrainian conflict as quickly as possible,” Ushakov told reporters.
A White House spokesperson was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC on Monday.
The US president, who repeatedly said during the 2024 election campaign that he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine in one day if elected, has reported the potential for renewed US support for Kyiv following the signing of a interim peace agreement with Iran.
This suggestion, alongside a string of successful deep strikes in Ukraine, has prompted some analysts to conclude that the war could evolve in kyiv’s favor, as Putin recently did. grateful the impact of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian fuel production for the first time.
Ukraine has intensification of attacks on Russian oil installations and military assets in recent weeks, seeking to cut off Moscow’s energy revenues and increase political pressure on the Kremlin.
Ukraine strikes Russian oil terminalUkrainian officials reported that forces struck a major oil terminal in Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, on Friday and Saturday, as well as the Kronstadt naval base, the main base of Russia’s Baltic Fleet. These attacks reportedly caused fires at the oil terminal and military installations.
In response, Russian missiles and drones struck the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of Monday, killing at least 11 people and severely damaging high-rise residential buildings, authorities said. said. The attack, which comes on the eve of the NATO summit, follows another deadly attack on kyiv last week.
Researchers at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, said Putin had sought to emphasize that Ukraine’s European partners had a false perception of battlefield realities, citing the account of Ushakov’s call.
Instead, Putin reportedly briefed Trump on the “real” frontline situation Russian troops are advancing into, with Putin claiming Russian forces had seized the eastern town of Kostyantynivka.
In this photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with the governor of the Kursk region in Moscow on June 30, 2026.
Gavril Grigorov | Afp | Getty Images
Russia’s claims of advances come as the Trump administration increasingly speaks publicly about Ukrainian battlefield successes, including medium- and long-range attacks on Russian military assets and energy infrastructure, the ISW said in its latest assessment.
“Putin and other Kremlin officials are likely deliberately injecting false narratives that Russian forces will imminently seize the rest of Donetsk Oblast into Western information space in order to convince the West to capitulate to demands that Russia cannot militarily guarantee,” the ISW researchers said on Sunday.
