Zelensky says he is ready to meet Putin after Trump calls Russian leader – follow live

What did Putin and Trump talk about?published at 23:23 British Summer Time 18 August

23:23 BST 18 August

Liza Fokht
BBC News Russian

The Kremlin confirms that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke by phone during the visit of Zelensky and European leaders to the White House.

The conversation lasted 40 minutes and was “frank” and “fairly constructive”, said Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov.

The most important point in the Kremlin’s statement is that according to Ushakov, Putin and Trump discussed “the idea of exploring the possibility of raising the level of representatives of Moscow and Kyiv at the talks”.

This is a much more cautious statement than the fresh remarks by President Trump, who just announced that he had begun discussing with Putin preparations for his bilateral Russia-Ukraine presidential meeting, and then for a possible trilateral summit.

This year, Russia and Ukraine have held three rounds of negotiations in Istanbul. They managed to resolve only certain humanitarian issues, such as prisoner exchanges, but did not bring the end of the war any closer.

The Russian delegation was led by Vladimir Medinsky, a conservative-minded aide to the Russian president. The Ukrainian delegation was headed by former defence minister Rustem Umerov.

We do not know exactly what the Kremlin means by “raising the level of representatives” — but it is possible that in this way Putin is dragging his feet on an immediate meeting with Trump and Zelensky, and is prepared to continue talks with Ukraine only at the level of less high-ranking officials.

It is possible that the Kremlin will decide whether Putin himself should attend future talks, or delegate someone of a lower rank, precisely based on the outcome of today’s negotiations in Washington.