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President Donald Trump said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to reach a deal to end the war in Ukraine, while Moscow warned on Wednesday that Western troops deployed to enforce any final peace deal would become Russian military targets.
“I say, ‘Vladimir, it’s time for you to stop. It’s time to end this war,'” Trump told Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst in an interview released Tuesday.
Trump said he believed Putin was “willing to make a deal” to end the fighting.
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Meanwhile, fighting continued throughout Ukraine and the Russian-occupied zone.
The escalating drone war has forced both militaries to search for additional methods to intercept unmanned aircraft, sometimes using weapons designed decades before modern drones emerged.
A video provided by East2West shows a Russian soldier losing control of a Soviet-era Yakby-12.7 rotary machine gun installed on an improvised ground platform.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump met in 2019, before their relationship began to sour. (Brandon Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
The weapon begins to rotate rapidly, pulling the service member around and then throwing him several yards from the mounting. The other soldier ducks as the gun swings in his direction.
East2West reported that no one was injured, although Fox News Digital has not independently confirmed the location, date or circumstances of the footage.
The four-barreled machine gun was originally developed for use in the Soviet-designed Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter. Russian forces have reportedly attempted to repurpose such weapons as ground-based defense against Ukrainian drones, East2West news reports.
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An explosion lights up the city sky during a Russian missile and drone strike in Kiev on July 2, 2026, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said any multinational force deployed by Ukraine’s allies after the ceasefire would be unacceptable to Moscow.
“We will consider such units as legitimate military targets,” Zakharova said, according to a Reuters report published on Wednesday.
Members of the Western “coalition of the willing” reaffirmed at a meeting in Paris this week that they intend to deploy a multinational force after hostilities end. The proposed force would attempt to reassure Ukraine and help Kiev rebuild its military.
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Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday its forces attacked the Balaklava thermal power station in Russian-held Crimea, which accounts for about half of the peninsula’s electricity production, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, Russia launched another major drone and missile attack against Ukraine’s southern Odessa region, killing three people, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. He said civilian, industrial and port infrastructure had been targeted during five consecutive days of Russian attacks.
Emergency services workers work to extinguish a vehicle fire following a Russian drone strike in the Kiev region of Ukraine on May 5, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service/AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said on Wednesday that Ukraine hopes to develop the technical capability to manufacture missiles for US-made Patriot air-defense systems by the end of 2026.
Reuters contributed to this story.
