After fruitless call with Putin, Trump takes up Pope’s offer to mediate Russia-Ukraine conflict - National & International News - TUE 20May2025 -

After fruitless call with Putin, Trump takes up Pope’s offer to mediate conflict.

Trump touts $175 billion missile defense system for US.

After fruitless call with Putin, Trump takes up Pope’s offer to mediate conflict

After a conference in Istanbul last week failed to make significant progress in resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict, President Trump held a 2-hour-long phone call yesterday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. While Trump said it was a “good call”, it apparently did not achieve any major breakthroughs.

Having faced difficulties in getting both sides to the table in this intractable conflict, it appears Trump is now looking to step back from his role as a mediator. After his call with Putin yesterday, Trump suggested that the Vatican, led by Pope Leo XIV, could serve as a mediator and a site of negotiation for the conflict. Pope Leo himself has offered the Vatican’s services in mediating conflicts around the world. It will be a major test for the newly elected American-born Pontiff.

Italy’s president Georgia Meloni, strong ally of Kiev, said her government would assist in any way that it could. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked His Holiness for his willingness to host talks and said that his government would find the Vatican an acceptable meeting point. Russia has not yet publicly expressed their agreement.

Trump touts $175 billion missile defense system for US

President Trump announced today that his administration had “selected an architecture” for a missile defense system to protect the 48 contiguous states. In total, Trump says that the project, which he has dubbed “Golden Dome”, will cost about $175 billion. However it could ultimately cost much more than that. Congress is not yet funded any part of this project, but Trump has vowed to have it finished before the end of his term in office.

The project, which will involve multiple private defense contractors, as yet unnamed. Trump said that, “once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world and even if they are launched from space”.

The concept, and the name, are based on Israel’s Iron Dome system, installed in 2011. Iron Dome is principally designed to defend against shorter-range missiles. Israel has other atmospheric defense systems meant to defend against longer range missiles. These have not always performed as expected.

The concept for Golden Dome is a response to an involving threat environment. In recent years, Russia and China have been developing novel forms of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) which could exploit current gaps in the US missile defense system.