Russian president Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump discussed Ukraine and the upcoming Nato summit in Turkey in a phone call, while Trump also spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart.Putin congratulated Trump on the 250th anniversary of US independence in the call that lasted 85 minutes, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in an audio message to reporters.“The presidents naturally touched on the topic of a Ukrainian settlement, including in light of Trump’s upcoming participation in the Nato summit in Turkey on July 7-8,” Ushakov said. “The American president reaffirmed his readiness to facilitate a swift end to hostilities and the search for solutions to overcome the crisis.”Ushakov said US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would continue their efforts at mediating a settlement and were ready to travel to Moscow when convenient. “The Russian side emphasised the preference for a political and diplomatic settlement of the conflict, while taking into account fundamental Russian approaches,” he said.Putin outlined the current situation on the battlefield to Trump and the pair “emphasised the importance of maintaining contact, including on military-political and economic issues,” Ushakov said. They also discussed the situation concerning Iran, according to the Kremlin aide.[ Why Crimea has become so important in the Ukraine conflictOpens in new window ]Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy also congratulated Trump on the US anniversary during a phone call on Saturday. Both leaders discussed the situation on the front line as well as diplomatic efforts, Zelenskiy said in an X post.Trump will join fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leaders in Turkey for a summit starting on Tuesday. He will meet Zelenskiy while at the Nato summit to make a renewed push to end the war in Ukraine, ​a senior US official said on Sunday.Trump is scheduled ⁠to arrive at the summit on Tuesday. ‌His first ‌meeting ​will be with summit host, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan. Trump will ⁠also meet Syrian ​president Ahmed al-Sharaa and hold ​a press conference, the White House said.A ‌senior US official who ​briefed reporters on condition of anonymity about the ⁠trip said Trump ⁠will ​meet Zelenskiy on Wednesday to discuss “how we can end the war”.“The battlefield has clearly frozen over the last couple of months and neither side is making a lot of progress,” the official said. “The president ‌feels a real ⁠sense of urgency to try to bring this to a stop.”The US president has pushed other alliance members to take on more of the financial burden in defending Europe, while also ordering the Pentagon to cut troop levels on the Continent – a move that blindsided allies – and slashing the military assets Washington would potentially provide in a crisis.Germany’s foreign ministry said continued support for Ukraine’s defence would be a focus at the gathering in Ankara after Russia on Thursday carried out one of its most intense air strikes of the year so far against Kyiv, killing 30 people in the Ukrainian capital. Moscow’s forces also targeted the Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Cherkasy regions. Zelenskiy spoke on Saturday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.Meanwhile, Ukraine has expanded the range and intensity of its drone and missile strikes inside Russia, triggering alerts across nearly half of the regions in the world’s largest country so far this year. Kyiv has also stepped up attacks against Russia’s oil refineries, forcing outages at the facilities and causing gasoline shortages.Trump and Putin spoke last month in what Ushakov called a “friendly and frank” discussion on the occasion of the US president’s 80th birthday. At that time Ushakov also said Witkoff and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, planned to return to Russia soon, without elaborating.US-brokered talks to end Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now well into its fifth year, have stalled amid the war on Iran.Putin said late Friday that Russian forces had taken control of Kostiantynivka, a strategic logistics centre in Ukraine’s fortified eastern Donetsk region.Zelenskiy dismissed the Russian claim as untrue on Saturday, calling it “another Russian lie to generate some kind of news,” in a post on X. He said the heavily bombarded city remained under Ukraine’s command. – Bloomberg