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Pope Leo XIV Tells Putin to Make a ‘Gesture’ of Peace in First Phone Call
Pope Leo XIV held his first phone conversation with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, the Vatican and Kremlin both confirmed a day later, discussing the Church’s humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.
Remarks from the Holy See indicated that Pope Leo emphasized the need for Russia to take productive steps towards ending its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2014 with the colonization of Crimea but expanded dramatically with the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022. The phone call with Pope Leo occurred on the same day as Putin held an over hour-long conversation with President Donald Trump — one which Trump lamented did not indicate peace would come to Ukraine anytime soon.
Pope Leo was elected to lead the Catholic Church in May following the passing of Pope Francis. He has dedicated much of his early public attention to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, praying and calling for an end to the carnage. The pope met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shortly after assuming office in May.
In his conversation with Putin on Wednesday, “the pope made an appeal for Russia to take a gesture that would favor peace,” according to Holy See Press Office chief Matteo Bruni, “emphasizing the importance of dialogue to create positive contacts between the parties and seek solutions to the conflict.”
Bruni added that the pope discussed his relationship with the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church and the importance of a close relationship between the two Churches.
“Pope Leo made reference to Patriarch Kirill, thanking him for the congratulations received at the beginning of his pontificate,” Bruni explained, “and underlined how shared Christian values can be a light that helps to seek peace, defend life, and pursue genuine religious freedom.”
The Vatican added that the two also discussed ongoing prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine.2qa
The Kremlin’s statements on the conversation between its leader and Pope Leo XIV included significant praise for the Vatican. Putin congratulated the pope on taking on the leadership of the Church — the first opportunity that he had to do so since the Conclave — and “gave a very high assessment of the Vatican’s contribution to addressing a number of humanitarian issues [in Ukraine],” according to top Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“The Vatican has expressed its initiatives and spoken of its openness and readiness to contribute to the settlement in Ukraine,” the Russian news outlet Tass quoted Peskov as telling reporters. “Until now, however, there had been no contact between Putin and the Pope. Putin took this opportunity to congratulate the Pope on his election at the conclave.”
Tass added that “the Russian president expressed his gratitude to the pontiff for his willingness to facilitate a peaceful settlement in Ukraine” but did not discuss the Vatican taking on a formal mediator role in any “specific” way.
The official Kremlin statement on the phone call credited Putin with emphasizing his alleged “willingness to achieve peace through political and diplomatic means, pointing out that in order to reach an ultimate, fair, and thorough resolution, it was necessary to eliminate the root causes of the crisis.”
“Appreciation was expressed to the pontiff for his willingness to contribute to resolving the crisis, notably, for Vatican’s depoliticized participation in solving pressing humanitarian issues,” the statement continued. “Vladimir Putin drew special attention to the fact that Kiev regime was banking on escalating the conflict and carried out sabotage against civilian infrastructure in Russia’s territory.”
Putin also allegedly accused Ukraine of “terrorism” for strikes inside Russian territory.
Putin held a conversation with Trump on the same day, following repeated public condemnations from the White House of Putin targeting civilians with drone strikes in Ukraine. Trump’s statement on the conversation was conciliatory, if not positive, calling the conversation “good” but essentially unproductive on the invasion.
“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” Trump wrote in a statement on his social media outlet Truth Social.
Trump previously condemned Putin in Truth Social posts for repeatedly ordering drone strikes targeting civilians in Ukraine, killing children.
“He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump wrote of Putin on May 25. “He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever.”
“I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!” Trump warned.
The Kremlin responded to that statement by dismissing Trump as “emotional.”
Following the Russian strikes, Ukraine executed a drone attack this weekend that reportedly destroyed dozens of Russian warplanes, outraging Moscow, though notably contrasting with the Russian attacks on civilian targets. Multiple attempts in the past month to bring Putin and Zelensky together for peace talks have failed.
Pope Leo has made ending the Ukraine war a priority of his papacy. During his first Sunday noon blessing after being elected pope, he prayed for the Ukrainian people and an end to the war.
“I carry in my heart the suffering of the beloved Ukrainian people,” he said at the time. “May all prisoners be freed, and may the children be returned to their families.”
The pope also rapidly made time to speak to Zelensky in a conversation that the Ukrainian presidency described as “very warm and truly substantive.”
“I thanked His Holiness for his support of Ukraine and all our people. We deeply value his words about the need to achieve a just and lasting peace for our country and the release of prisoners,” Zelensky wrote at the time, adding that he had invited the pope to visit Ukraine.
Pope Leo and Zelensky met in person at the Vatican a week later, along with other foreign dignitaries visiting the Vatican for the pope’s inaugural Mass.
Aftermath of Ukraine drone strike on Russian bombers seen in satellite photos
Satellite image (c) 2025 Maxar Technologies
Satellite images of Russian air bases released Wednesday appear to show the aftermath of what Ukraine called “Operation Spider’s Web” — a long-planned drone attack deep inside Russian territory, which Ukrainian security officials claim destroyed 41 military bombers.
Debris and what appear to be burn scars, along with some intact aircraft, can be seen in photos of Belaya and Oleya airbases, which were provided by Maxar Technologies, an American space technology company.
Some of the aircraft were untouched and seemed to have unusual items placed on top of them, close-ups of the images show.
Satellite image (c) 2025 Maxar Technologies
SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk said in a statement that Ukraine hit aircraft at four Russian bases, inflicting more than $7 billion worth of damage on Russia’s bomber fleet over the weekend. CBS News has not been able to confirm the full extent of the damage.
Russia has claimed Ukraine’s estimates are exaggerated.
The Russian Defense Ministry said several warplanes at airbases in the Irkutsk and Murmansk regions were set on fire during the attack, but the fires were extinguished, according to The Associated Press. It also said Ukraine unsuccessfully tried to hit two air bases in western Russia and another in the Amur region, in Russia’s Far East, AP reported.
The attacks come as delegates from the two countries meet in Istanbul for the second round of negotiations in a bid for peace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had no public response to the attack before Wednesday, when he spoke to President Trump by phone for over an hour.
“We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”
A Kremlin spokesperson said Tuesday that Putin was updated in real time about the attack, but is waiting for the results of an investigation into the assault.
Satellite image (c) 2025 Maxar Technologies
Trump Talks with Putin: ‘Not a Conversation That Will Lead to Immediate Peace’
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin via phone call in a conversation that was “good” but will not “lead to immediate peace,” as Putin insists he will respond to Ukraine’s recent attack.
Trump took to Truth Social midday to share that he spoke with Putin for about an hour and fifteen minutes.
“We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides. It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” Trump said.
Per the Associated Press, the drone attack destroyed 40 Russian planes.
“President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” Trump added.
The leaders also spoke about Iran, with Putin offering to assist the U.S. in talks regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
“We also discussed Iran, and the fact that time is running out on Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons, which must be made quickly! I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we were in agreement,” Trump wrote.
“President Putin suggested that he will participate in the discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion,” Trump added.
He then accused Iran of “slow-walking their decision on this very important matter, and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time!”
This call comes after Trump was critical of Putin and Russia last week. On May 27, he said the Russian president was “playing with fire.”
Just days earlier, he had said that Putin “has gone absolutely CRAZY” and that if Putin’s end goal is to capture all of Ukraine this would be Russia’s downfall.
How Ukraine launched a surprise drone attack on military targets deep inside Russia
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Citing Russia threat, U.K. leader announces military spending boost, including new nuclear-powered submarines
London — The United Kingdom will build as many as a dozen new nuclear-powered attack submarines, get its army ready to fight a war in Europe and become “a battle-ready, armor-clad nation,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Monday. The promise is part of a planned military spending boost — echoed recently by other close U.S. allies in Europe — designed to send a message to both Moscow, and to President Trump in Washington.
Starmer said Britain “cannot ignore the threat that Russia poses” as he pledged to undertake the most sweeping changes to Britain’s defenses since the collapse of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago.
“The threat we face is more serious, more immediate and more unpredictable than at any time since the Cold War,” Starmer told workers and journalists at a navy shipyard in Scotland.
Andy Buchanan/WPA Pool/Getty
Like other NATO members, the U.K. has been reassessing its defense spending since Russia launched its ongoing, full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The government announced its plans for the military in response to a strategic defense review commissioned by Starmer and led by George Robertson, a former U.K. defense secretary and NATO secretary general. It was the first such review since 2021, and it landed in a world shaken and transformed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and by the reelection of Mr. Trump last year.
Months after Britain’s last major defense review was published in 2021, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that the era of “fighting big tank battles on European landmass” was over. Three months later, Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.
Starmer’s center-left Labour Party government has said it will accept all 62 recommendations made in the review, aiming to help the U.K. confront growing threats on land, air, sea and cyberspace.
The measures include increasing production of submarines and weapons and “learning the lessons of Ukraine,” which has rapidly developed its drone technology to counter Moscow’s forces and even hit targets deep inside Russia. Starmer made his announcement a day after Ukraine launched a drone attack of unprecedented scale against Russian air bases, claiming to have damaged or destroyed 41 Russian bombers.
The government said the U.K. will also establish a cyber command to counter “daily” Russia-linked attacks on Britain’s defenses.
Andy Buchanan/WPA Pool/Getty
Monday’s announcements include building “up to 12” nuclear-powered, conventionally armed submarines under the AUKUS partnership with Australia and the United States. The government also says it will invest 15 billion pounds (about $20.3 billion) in Britain’s nuclear arsenal, which consists of missiles carried on a handful of submarines. Details of those plans are likely to be kept secret.
The government will also increase conventional Britain’s weapons stockpiles with up to 7,000 U.K.-built long-range weapons.
Starmer said rearming would create a “defense dividend” of thousands of well-paid manufacturing jobs — a contrast to the post-Cold War “peace dividend” that saw Western nations channel money away from defense into other areas.
Defense Secretary John Healey said the changes would send “a message to Moscow,” and transform the country’s military following decades of retrenchment, though he said he does not expect the number of soldiers — currently at a two-century low — to rise until the early 2030s.
Healey said plans for defense spending to hit 2.5% of national income by 2027 a year are “on track” and that there’s “no doubt” it will hit 3% before 2034.
Starmer said the 3% goal is an “ambition,” rather than a firm promise, and it’s unclear where the cash-strapped Treasury will find the money. The government has already, contentiously, cut international aid spending to reach the 2.5% target.
Starmer said he wouldn’t make a firm pledge until he knew “precisely where the money is coming from.”
Even 3% falls short of what some leaders in NATO think is needed to deter Russia from future attacks on its neighbors. NATO chief Mark Rutte says leaders of the 32 member countries will debate a commitment to spend at least 3.5% of GDP on defense when they meet in the Netherlands this month.
It’s also a message to Mr. Trump that Europe is heeding his demand for NATO members to spend more on their own defense.
European countries, led by the U.K. and France, have scrambled to coordinate their defense posture as Mr. Trump transforms American foreign policy, seemingly sidelining Europe as he looks to end the war in Ukraine. Mr. Trump has long questioned the value of NATO and complained that the U.S. provides security to European countries that don’t pull their weight.
Starmer said his government would make “Britain’s biggest contribution to NATO since its creation.”
“We will never fight alone,” he said. “Our defense policy will always be NATO-first.”
James Cartlidge, defense spokesman for the main British opposition Conservative Party, welcomed more money for defense but was skeptical of the government’s 3% pledge.
“All of Labour’s strategic defense review promises will be taken with a pinch of salt unless they can show there will actually be enough money to pay for them,” he said.
Russia’s response to Ukrainian drone attack on bombers muted as warring nations hold direct talks
Ukraine’s shock drone attack on Russian military air bases, including some deep inside Russian territory, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was secretly planned and coordinated from inside Russia over the past 18 months, seemed on Monday to have left the Kremlin speechless.
Russia’s state-run media cited the country’s defense ministry as saying Monday that forces had struck Ukrainian drone production, launch and storage sites, and claiming to have shot down hundreds of Ukrainian-launched drones over the past 24 hours, but there was no direct public response from Russian authorities to the Ukrainian strike.
While Ukraine has launched drones at Russia, including the capital Moscow, for months, as well as staging other covert operations on Russian soil, the attack on Sunday was notable for its scope and scale. Ukraine claimed it had damaged or destroyed 41 Russian bomber aircraft at bases across the vast country. Ukrainian officials said the attack did not endanger any Russian civilians.
It was also notable for its timing, a day before the two sides sat down face-to-face in Turkey for a second round of direct talks.
The head of Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency said in a statement on Tuesday that Russia “thought that it could bomb Ukraine and endlessly kill Ukrainians with impunity. But that is not the case. We will respond to Russian terror and destroy the enemy everywhere — at sea, in the air, and on land.”
Social Media/via REUTERS
SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk claimed in the statement that Ukraine had hit aircraft at four Russian bases, inflicting more than $7 billion worth of damage on Russia’s bomber fleet.
The Ministry of Defense in Moscow said Monday that Russia’s air defenses had intercepted a total of 316 Ukrainian drones in 24 hours, which encompasses the time of Ukraine’s attack. The Russian ministry said 205 of those drones were hit outside the “special operation zone,” a term the Kremlin uses to refer to land it has seized since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Ukrainian authorities said that, before dawn on Monday, Russia launched two ballistic missiles and a series of drones at the northeast city of Kharkiv, just miles from the Russian border, wounding at least six people, including a child.
Separately, Russia’s military claimed more than 1,400 Ukrainian troops were killed in northern Ukraine over the preceding day.
Russia and Ukraine hold 2nd round of talks in Turkey
Despite the sharp escalation in the war making any breakthrough appear even less likely than it had before, Russian and Ukrainian delegations did sit down opposite each other Monday in Istanbul for the second round of negotiations in a bid for peace.
Ukraine’s representatives, led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, were expected to present a plan demanding a “full and unconditional ceasefire in the sky, on land and at sea as a necessary background and prerequisite for peace negotiations,” the Reuters news agency said, citing a text of the Ukrainian proposal it had viewed. The proposed truce would last a minimum of 30 days, in line with calls made by the Trump administration previously.
Handout/Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Getty
Ukraine was also expected to demand the unconditional return of all Ukrainian children and civilian hostages taken during the war, and that territorial gains made by Russia since February 2014, when Russia first invaded and illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula, not be recognized by the international community.
In return, Ukraine is open to the lifting of “some sanctions” imposed against Russia by the U.S. and its allies, “but in stages and only gradually, with a mechanism for resuming sanctions if necessary.
The Ukrainians also want Russian sovereign assets frozen by Western nations to be used for reconstruction, or to remain frozen until reparations are paid.
Moscow did not, going into the second round of talks on Monday, reveal any new conditions or terms for a hypothetical ceasefire.
President Vladimir Putin’s government has insisted for months that the only way to end the war is to address what it vaguely calls the conflict’s “root causes.” Russia insists the war, which Putin calls only a “special military operation,” was caused by NATO’s ambitions for further eastward expansion, and by Moscow’s desire to defend Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the eastern part of the neighboring nation.
Putin and his senior aides routinely dismiss pro-Europe, pro-NATO Zelenskyy as an illegitimate leader of Ukraine. The Russian president has refused to accept his Ukrainian counterpart’s challenge to hold direct personal talks, face-to-face.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Monday as the talks got underway that discussions over such a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting “will be considered.”
But there was no confirmation from either Ukraine or Russia that such a high-level dialogue was imminent. Instead, reports from Turkey suggested the second round of talks had concluded in just over an hour. Zelenskyy, who did not attend the negotiations, told reporters during a visit Monday to Lithuania, however, that a new prisoner swap between the warring sides was being organized.
He did not say how far the planning for a swap had gone, but a significant exchange late last month of about 1,000 captured civilians and prisoners of war was the only tangible result of the first round of talks between Russia and Ukraine.
President Trump has voiced frustration with both Zelenskyy and Putin for failing to agree to a truce. During last year’s election campaign, Mr. Trump vowed repeatedly to broker an end of the war within hours of taking office. The U.S. president recently issued rare sharp criticism of Putin, calling him “absolutely crazy” for continuing to hammer Ukrainian cities with missiles as the U.S. and its partners push for a peace agreement.
Mr. Trump wondered in a social media post during the last prisoner swap whether it, “could lead to something big?”
Russian officials were quoted by the country’s state-run media as saying the two sides agreed on Monday to hold a third round of talks, but no date was set. The officials acknowledged that future prisoner swaps had been a key point of discussion, but Ukrainian officials said Russia had rejected the call for a broader 30-day ceasefire.
There was no immediate reaction from the White House to the second round of negotiations in Turkey on Monday, but the Trump administration did make it clear that Ukraine had given no advance warning of the Sunday drone attack ahead of those talks.
Ukraine claims massive drone attack on military sites deep inside Russia as peace talks resume
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Inside Ukraine’s massive drone attack deep in Russian territory
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Ukraine claims drone attack hit 40 Russian bombers as talks set to resume in Turkey
Ukraine launched a “large-scale” drone attack deep into Russian territory that security officials claim destroyed 40 military bombers as it gears up for another round of talks in Istanbul to explore prospects of a ceasefire.
A Ukrainian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that the attack took over a year and a half to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Governor of Irkutsk Region Igor Kobzev via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones hit airfields including the Belaya air base in Russia’s Irkutsk region, more than 2,500 miles from Ukraine. It is the first time that a Ukrainian drone has been seen in the region, local Gov. Igor Kobzev told AP, stressing that it did not present a threat to civilians.
While White House spokespeople declined to comment on the attack, administration sources told CBS News on Sunday that the White House was not aware it was coming.
The drone attack came as Kyiv announced a Russian military strike killed at least 12 soldiers at an army training site. Ukraine’s air force said 472 Russian drones were launched — the biggest number since the full-scale invasion three years ago.
Russian forces also launched seven missiles alongside the barrage of drones, said Yuriy Ignat, head of communications for the Ukrainian air force.
The training unit is located to the rear of the 620-mile active front line, where Russian reconnaissance and strike drones are able to strike.
Meanwhile, explosions caused two bridges to collapse and derailed two trains in western Russia overnight, officials said Sunday, without saying what had caused the blasts. In one of the incidents, seven people were killed and dozens were injured.
Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
The first bridge, in the Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, collapsed on top of a passenger train on Saturday, causing casualties. The train’s driver was among those killed, state-run Russian Railways said.
Hours later, officials said a second train derailed when the bridge beneath it collapsed in the nearby Kursk region, which also borders Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said on Sunday that he was sending a Ukrainian delegation to Istanbul, led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, for another face-to-face with Russian representatives.
“We are doing everything to protect our independence, our state and our people,” he said.
Zelenskyy said priorities for the meeting include “a complete and unconditional ceasefire” and the return of prisoners and abducted children.
Russian news agencies said the Russian delegation was headed to Istanbul on Sunday for the talks.
Ukrainian officials had previously called on the Kremlin to provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the war before the meeting took place. Moscow had said it would share its memorandum during the talks.
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contributed to this report.