Putin Issues Ultimatum to Trump Amid Russia’s Strategic Plans for Ukraine Offensive

Vladimir Putin has delivered a stark warning to Donald Trump, urging the evacuation of Americans ahead of a potential “systematic” assault on Kyiv.

In a phone call on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov communicated to his U.S. counterpart, Marco Rubio, that Moscow is preparing to launch “systematic and consistent strikes” on the Ukrainian capital. Lavrov strongly recommended the evacuation of U.S. citizens and diplomats from the area.

Rubio confirmed to reporters that he had passed along Putin’s message to Trump, as requested by the Russian leader.

While traveling to Armenia, Rubio mentioned that there are no current negotiations with Ukraine but noted that Washington is prepared to “play a constructive and helpful role should the opportunity arise.”

Earlier, the Kremlin issued a statement cautioning that the forthcoming strikes would aim at “decision-making centers and command posts.”

‘We are notifying foreign citizens, including the personnel of diplomatic missions and international organizations of the need to leave the city as soon as possible,’ the Kremlin added.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged Kyiv’s allies not to cave to ‘Russian blackmail.’  

Katarina Mathernova, the European Union’s ambassador to Ukraine, vowed the 27-nation bloc was staying put. 

President Donald Trump speaks on the phone inside a vehicle as he returns to the White House in Washington, DC, USA, May 25

Servicemen of the 148th Separate Artillery Zhytomyr Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire a BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system towards Russian troops, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine May 25

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Tuesday, May 26

‘Russia wants fear, panic, isolation of Ukraine. It will not work. The EU is not going anywhere. We are staying in Kyiv. We are staying with Ukraine,’ she said. 

A spokesperson for France’s foreign ministry was equally defiant: ‘We’re used to Putin’s threats. It is out of the question to evacuate.’ 

Russian strikes on Kyiv over the weekend killed four people and injured around 100 more. 

Moscow claimed those strikes, and any to come, were retaliation for what it called a deliberate Ukrainian attack on a student dormitory in the Russian-occupied city of Starobilsk on Friday. 

The Kremlin said 21 people were killed in that strike, prompting Putin to order retaliation. Ukraine’s military countered that it had hit an elite Russian drone unit in the area, not civilians.  

Russia had issued a similar evacuation call earlier this month, threatening massive strikes on central Kyiv if Ukraine disrupted a military parade on Red Square. 

Russian attacks killed four people and wounded more than a dozen others across eastern Ukraine on Monday, local authorities said. 

A strike on the town of Dergachi in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed two men, aged 68 and 25, and wounded nearly two dozen others, regional governor Oleg Synegubov said.

Russian forces occupied swathes of the Kharkiv border region when they invaded in 2022, but were pushed back months later in a Ukrainian offensive that embarrassed the Kremlin.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio disembarks his plane with his wife Jeanette upon arrival in Armenia on May 26

A separate attack on Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region killed two people, the city’s mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko said on Facebook.

Russia launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022, and the conflict has since spiraled into Europe’s deadliest since World War II. 

Kyiv has spent the years since lobbying allies to help push Putin’s forces back, and pressing Washington in particular to expand missile production, so far to no avail. 

Volodymyr Zelensky admitted on Monday that Ukraine had made little headway in talks with Washington on expanding missile defense production and was now turning to Europe to fill the gap. 

‘Unfortunately, there has been no progress for a long time with America regarding the expansion of anti-ballistic missile production,’ he said. 

‘We are trying to accelerate this work in Europe, the production of our own anti-ballistic systems on the continent in sufficient quantities.’

Zelensky said Ukraine was continuing to press Washington for help and insisted US leadership remained vital.