Limitations for UGL Report Verifications

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he and the Russian president had "agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately". Later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had spoken with Trump about a "lasting, reliable peace".

The calls with the warring sides came as both Trump and his defence secretary said it was unlikely Ukraine would join Nato, which will come as a bitter disappointment to Kyiv. Zelensky said he would meet Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a defence summit on Ukraine in Munich on Friday. Trump wrote on social media: "It is time to stop this ridiculous War, where there has been massive, and totally unnecessary, DEATH and DESTRUCTION.

God bless the people of Russia and Ukraine!" He did not set a date for a face-to-face meeting with Putin, but later told reporters at the White House: "We'll meet in Saudi Arabia." He wrote on social media the pair had also invited each other to their respective capitals. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin supported Trump's idea that the time had come to work together. The phone call between Putin and Trump lasted nearly an hour-and-a-half, during which the Russian president extended an invitation to visit Moscow, Peskov said.

Trump also told reporters at the White House that it was unlikely Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders but, in response to a question from the BBC, he said "some of that land will come back". The president said he agreed with his Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who told a Nato summit earlier on Wednesday that there was no likelihood of Ukraine joining the military alliance. Later on Wednesday, seven European countries including Britain, France and Germany insisted they be part of any future negotiations on Ukraine's fate.

"Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength," read the joint statement released after a meeting of foreign ministers in Paris. "Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations." They called for strong security guarantees for Ukraine and said they were looking forward to discussing the way forward with their American allies.