ISTANBUL

Russian President Vladimir Putin informed his US counterpart, President Donald Trump, about thwarted attacks targeting Moscow ahead of the 80th anniversary of Victory Day earlier this month, a Moscow presidential aide said on Tuesday.

During their over two-hour Monday phone call on efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war, Putin said he conveyed that Moscow will propose and is ready to work with Kyiv on a memorandum for a possible peace deal.

The Russian president described the call as “frank and substantive,” saying during a news conference in the resort city of Sochi that both countries should show “maximum desire” to reach peace and find “compromises” that will suit each other.

Speaking to reporters in Moscow, Russia’s presidential aide Yury Ushakov said Putin highlighted the significance of the recent Victory Day celebrations, recalling that Russia had announced a three-day ceasefire ahead of the holiday.

Ushakov claimed that Ukraine launched 524 drones and an unspecified number of Storm Shadow missiles on Russian territory between the nights of May 6 and 7, the majority of which were aimed at Moscow.

“Almost all of them were shot down. At the same time, threats of terrorist attacks in the center of the capital—in the area of the Kremlin and Red Square—were prevented,” Ushakov added.

The presidential aide went on to say that Putin told Trump about Ukraine's "intimidations" of leaders who attended the holiday's celebrations, which are held annually on May 9 in Russia and several former Soviet countries.

He noted that the two presidents also discussed "a lot and warmly" the alliance between the US and the Soviet Union during World War II, with Trump saying Moscow and Washington are "very far from each other" due to "strange circumstances."

Ushakov said Trump conveyed he was “deeply impressed” by the “price” at which the Soviet Union achieved victory during the conflict, which Russia refers to as the Great Patriotic War.

“Trump shared that when he talks about this, many in America simply don’t believe him, but the fact remains: the Russians sacrificed their lives more than anyone else (during World War II),” Ushakov said.