According to a conversation leaked by the Financial Times, US President Donald Trump is said to have asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: "Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? Can you also attack St. Petersburg?". As reported by Focus Online, Sekensky replied: "Absolutely. We can, if you give us the weapons". According to Prof. Dr. Heinemann-Grüder, the phone call was not leaked by chance, but is part of Trump's “strategic communication”: the US President wanted to signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the US is no longer willing to accept Russia's war of aggression. Furthermore, Trump could use the conversation with Selenskyj to ensure against which exact Russian targets the US long-range weapons would be used in order to prevent strikes against illegitimate targets, such as the Crimean Peninsula or Russian military bases where nuclear weapons are stationed.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Heinemann-Grüder at "Focus Online" on Trumps Phone Call With Zelenskyy Prof. Dr. Andreas Heinemann-Grüder at "Focus Online" on Trumps Phone Call With Zelenskyy
On July 15, 2025, Prof. Dr. Andreas Heinemann-Grüder assessed the current state of US-Ukrainian relations in an interview given to Focus Online. The political scientist referred to the most recent alleged phone call between Trump and Zelenskyy, in which the US President is said to have asked whether the Ukrainian armed forces could hit targets in Moscow and St. Petersburg with the help of US weapons.
US-President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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Prof. Dr. Andreas Heinemann-Grüder is a Senior Fellow at CASSIS, an Extraordinary Professor of Political Science at the University of Bonn and a Senior Researcher at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC)