Trump pauses Zelenskyy-EU meeting to speak to Putin

Washington DC [US], August 19 (ANI): US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke after Trump paused his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders on Monday (local time), a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
The source said the Europeans were not present for the conversation then.
A European official told CNN that Trump paused the negotiations with the European leaders and Zelenskyy in order to call Putin. The news was first reported by German newspaper Bild, who reported the talks with European leaders would continue after the call with Putin at the White House.
Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a "candid and very constructive phone call" on Monday, a top Kremlin aide said, as per CNN.
Putin's foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said that during the roughly 40-minute call, Trump informed Putin on his talks with the European leaders.
The Russian leader "expressed support for direct negotiations between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine," he said.
Following the meeting, Trump said that he had begun arranging a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy.
Trump and Putin had "discussed the idea of exploring the possibility of raising the level of representatives of Moscow and Kyiv at the talks," Ushakov said. He stopped short of confirming whether Putin had agreed to a bilateral or trilateral meeting.
Putin also thanked Trump again for hosting him during his trip to Alaska, Ushakov said.
Meanwhile, Trump has promised that the US would be involved in providing security guarantees for Ukraine. The US leader said that there would be some form of security guarantees for Ukraine, but did not reveal whether this would involve US troops.
He said, "The Alaska Summit made me realise that while difficult, peace is within reach. In a significant development, President Putin agreed to accept security guarantees for Ukraine, a key point we must consider. We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory, taking into consideration the current line of contact, that is, the war zone... We are going to try to get a three-party meeting with President Putin and President Zelenskyy, as soon as we can," he said. (ANI)