Trump puts European leaders on hold to talk with Putin – media
US President Donald Trump reportedly put a meeting with Vladimir Zelensky and his Western European backers on hold in order to place a call to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, multiple media have reported citing sources.
Trump has been hosting a meeting with Zelensky and the leaders of France, the UK, Italy, Poland, Finland, NATO and the European Commission, following a historic summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last Friday, which are expectd to focus on territorial exchanges and security guarantees for Moscow and Kiev.
The editor in chief at Bild has reported that Trump suspended talks in the White House on Monday in order to contact his Russian counterpart. BBC Monitoring also reported that the talks had finished before advising that their source in the Ukrainian delegation had said that talks had restarted.
Regarding potential communication with his Russian counterpart, Trump told the media briefing before going into today’s meetings “He’s expecting my call when we’re finished.”
The reports of a cessation in the talks and a call to Moscow emerged at around midnight in the Russian capital or 17:00 in Washington.
