A birthday of diplomacy: Zelensky and Putin both speak with Trump on his 80th as US President says envoys Witkoff and Kushner will visit Russia ‘soon’

US President Donald Trump embarked on high-level diplomacy on his 80th birthday, speaking today with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky discussed his country’s ongoing invasion with Trump on Sunday.

World leaders talked on the phone about war, diplomacy and peace negotiations.

During the meeting, which lasted about half an hour, Zelensky also wished Trump a happy birthday.

Putin also discussed the invasion of Ukraine with the US president. The Kremlin said Washington envoys would visit Russia soon.

‘The meeting focused on the situation around the memorandum of understanding prepared between the USA and Iran. Donald Trump said a deal was close, Kremlin deputy Yuri Ushakov told reporters.

“He said he was ready to act together with European partners and Kiev, including during talks at the G7 summit,” he added, referring to the G7 industrialized countries summit held in France this week.

Ushakov also said that ‘an agreement was reached that the special representatives of the US presidency, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are currently closely involved in Iranian issues, will return to Russia soon.’

The Russian aide also said Putin congratulated Trump “unofficially” on his 80th birthday.

Vladimir Putin (pictured) also spoke with the US president, discussing the invasion of Ukraine and the upcoming visit of Washington’s envoys to Russia.

Zelensky discussed his country’s ongoing invasion with Trump on Sunday

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person in Russia’s southwestern Oryol region, and a separate attack hit an oil facility as part of Kiev’s offensive campaign against military and energy targets deep in Russia, local officials said today.

One person was killed and nine people were injured when a Ukrainian drone crashed into a residential building in the regional capital, also called Oryol, overnight, Oryol regional governor Andrei Klychkov said today.

Local authorities in Russia’s Yaroslavl region, about 440 miles from the Ukrainian border, said fuel storage facilities caught fire after being hit by a drone.

Zelensky said that his country’s forces ‘hit an oil facility that is important for the reserves of the aggressor state’ in the Yaroslavl region.

Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian oil and gas facilities in recent months, arguing that the energy sector funds and directly fuels Moscow’s more than four-year occupation.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Sunday that Britain was investigating a sanctioned tanker suspected of being part of Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ carrying oil in violation of international sanctions related to Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

British armed forces boarded and detained the ship Smyrtos in the English Channel on Sunday, in what the Ministry of Defense called the ‘first UK-led operation of its kind’.

Russia is believed to be using a fleet of hundreds of ships to evade sanctions for its war against Ukraine.

“This operation deals another blow to Russia and reminds those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that they cannot hide,” Starmer said.