It was an hour-long call between the two presidents, and Zelensky’s summary of it is not brief either. Here’s a quick breakdown of what the Ukrainian president says:

• Lasting peace can be achieved this year "together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership"
• Ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure, is "one of the first steps toward fully ending the war", Zelensky said, adding: "I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it"
• Trump shared details about his conversation with Putin yesterday, and Zelensky gave an update on the battlefield situation and the consequences of Russian strikes
• Agreed to stay in contact - both "at the highest level" and through their teams, which can "agree on all necessary aspects of advancing toward lasting peace and security guarantees"

Image source, ZelenskyyUa

Volodymyr Zelensky has just commented on his earlier phone call with Donald Trump, describing it as "positive", "frank", and "very substantive".

"We agreed that Ukraine and the United States should continue working together to achieve a real end to the war and lasting peace," he says.

"We believe that together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership, lasting peace can be achieved this year."

We'll bring you more from his statement in our next post.

We're expecting the daily press briefing with the White House Press Secretary to begin shortly.

Karoline Leavitt will likely be asked about Donald Trump's call with Zelensky, but we'll bring you those lines once we get them. Stick with us.

Earlier we reported that there has been a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.

According to Zelensky, busses carrying 175 Ukrainians are now back in the northern Chernihiv region - some of them are "severely wounded", he wrote on X.

"All will be provided with the necessary medical and psychological assistance immediately," he added.

Zelensky called it one of the largest exchanges.

While we wait for more updates on the phone call, we've received news that Russia has attacked Ukrainian rail infrastructure in Dnipro for a second time today, according to Ukraine's state railway company.

In a post on Telegram, the company Ukrzaliznytsya said four workers were injured, two seriously.

The attack was preceded by a missile, it adds. The BBC has not been able to independently verify this.

Earlier, Ukrzaliznytsya reported that a drone attack was carried out, affecting electricity on part of the railway.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

The phone call between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky has ended.

In a post on his Truth Social social media account, Trump described the call as "very good" and lasting about one hour.

"Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs," he wrote.

"We are very much on track," Trump added.

Trump said that he's requested that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz "give an accurate description of the points discussed".

A further statement will be published "shortly", he added.

We're likely to hear more details of the call from Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at a briefing at 13:00 EST (17:00 GMT)

Where have we reached in efforts to end the war in Ukraine?published at 15:41 Greenwich Mean Time 19 March

15:41 GMT 19 March

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent

Despite an almost daily blizzard of meetings, summits and phonecalls, it’s clear that the process has yet to reach first base: a ceasefire, of any kind.

Not unlike the talks to end the war in Gaza, the process has yet to bring the two main protagonists, Ukraine and Russia, together.

And so we have multiple tracks which, not surprisingly, yield differing, conflicting results.

In the space of a week, the US has managed to get the two sides to agree to different versions of a ceasefire, neither of which has taken hold.

It’s fairly head scratching stuff.

“We have this shuttle diplomacy right now, between Ukraine, Europe, US and Russia,” the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told me yesterday. “And first we have to set the conditions and see whether there is any room for negotiations.”

From their collective sigh of relief, following the US-Ukraine encounter in Jeddah, just over a week ago, Ukraine’s European allies are once again wondering what’s going on.

Unlike that encounter, yesterday’s phone call between Trump and Putin did not produce a joint communique, with the White House and Kremlin releasing very different accounts of what was agreed.

The Kremlin’s version, with its reference to the “special responsibility of Russia and the United States” for global security and the prospects for “mutually beneficial cooperation”, was clearly designed to appeal to Trump’s desire to forge a closer relationship with the Kremlin, regardless of what happens in Ukraine.

It even mentioned hockey matches.

For the Ukrainian journalist and former MP Mustafa Nayem, it all harked back to an earlier era.

“It’s an image of the good old ‘friendship of nations’ which for both old people evokes nostalgic associations with the Cold War era,” he wrote on Facebook, “but without sanctions, war and nuclear threats.”

While the White House attempts to steer a course between Ukraine and Russia’s wildly competing red lines, Kyiv’s European allies are doing what they can to bolster Kyiv’s defences.

From Sir Keir Starmer’s expanding “coalition of the willing” to the outgoing German government’s pledge to release an additional €3bn in military assistance, the objective, according to Kallas, is to put Ukraine in a position of strength.

“The stronger they are on the battlefield, the stronger they are behind the negotiating table,” she told me.

Ukraine, she said, had to be able to say no to a bad deal.

Earlier, the Russian defence ministry said Russia and Ukraine had exchanged 175 prisoners of war each. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has since confirmed the swap, calling it "one of the largest" held.

He added that in addition to the 175 detainees released by Russia, an additional 22 "severely wounded" soldiers were also freed.

"All of them will immediately receive the necessary medical and psychological assistance," Zelensky said.

While we wait for updates from Trump and Zelensky's call, here's a reminder of what the US president and Vladimir Putin said they discussed on Tuesday:

What was agreed

• Energy attack pause: Russia said it accepted a proposal for both sides to stop targeting energy infrastructure for 30 days, and that the order was passed onto the military "immediately"
• More talks: Mediators will keep talking as part of efforts to resolve the conflict, with the US saying negotiations will begin "immediately" in the Middle East
• Black Sea negotiations: Both the US and Russia will carry out specific negotiations on a potential form of maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea

What wasn't agreed

• Full ceasefire: Russia did not agree to a proposal, backed by the US and Ukraine, for an immediate 30-day ceasefire on land, air and sea
• Conditions for peace: Putin said "the key condition" for achieving a lasting resolution would be for Ukraine to stop rearming and receiving military aid and intelligence support - the US readout makes no mention of this

Based on the information provided by both the US and Russia, it is unclear what the Ukrainian involvement will be in future negotiations or if there was any agreement on that issue.

We'll bring you the latest from the call as soon as we get it, stay with us.

Image source, Getty Images

When Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky speak over the phone, some frostiness may still linger after a White House row that threatened to end international relations between their countries.

At the end of last month, Ukraine's diplomatic relationship with the US appeared fragile, to say the least, when Zelenksy and Trump - who was backed by his Vice President JD Vance - traded angry outbursts over the future of the war and conditions of a ceasefire deal.

Zelensky was accused of "gambling with World War Three", and told to leave the White House before a much-anticipated minerals deal could be signed.

Trump then cut off military aid to the embattled country and paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

Since then, the relationship between Zelensky and Trump has improved slightly; aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine have both been restored.

For his part, Zelensky has continued to thank the US for its support, and said earlier this month that he's ready to work towards peace under the US president's "strong leadership".

Despite this, talks between Ukraine and the US have since largely been led by the leaders' negotiating teams instead - officials from both parties met in Saudi Arabia last week when proposals for a 30-day ceasefire were agreed.

Deal to halt energy attacks isn't a write-off, despite shaky startpublished at 14:16 Greenwich Mean Time 19 March

14:16 GMT 19 March

Sarah Rainsford
Eastern Europe correspondent, in Warsaw

It doesn’t bode brilliantly for any potential ceasefire that Russia and Ukraine can’t agree whether a halt to strikes on energy infrastructure has even started.

The Kremlin claims it went into effect immediately after Vladimir Putin’s conversation with Donald Trump, and that Russia then shot down its own drones that were heading for targets in southern Ukraine.

Kyiv says there was no let-up in Russian strikes overnight and Volodymyr Zelensky is waiting to discuss the matter directly with Trump. Meanwhile, Ukraine apparently carried out its own attack on a Russian oil depot.

All the same, this shaky start doesn’t automatically mean that even the mini-deal that emerged from the two presidents’ phone call is a write-off.

The two sides can still agree to stop such strikes: Ukraine has already agreed to a full ceasefire, and this is just part of that.

A more obvious ‘green light’ might come after a Zelensky-Trump call, or after further talks between delegations this weekend in Saudi Arabia.

That’s when the two sides’ commitment to de-escalate would really be put to the test. Primarily that of Russia - which has, so far, only been stalling and setting more conditions.

Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring

Ukraine and Russia have swapped 175 prisoners of war each, the Russian defence ministry says.

The United Arab Emirates acted as a mediator in the exchange, it says.

Russia also handed over 22 badly injured Ukrainian soldiers as “a gesture of goodwill”, it says.

The prisoner swap was announced after the telephone conversation between the Russian and US presidents, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

The White House has just confirmed that the call between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky will take place within the next 30 minutes.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

US national security advisor Mike Waltz briefly spoke to a handful of reporters as he walked, flanked by aides, into the West Wing of the White House.

According to Waltz, he was on his way to speak to his counterpart in Moscow.

"And then we also have a call with the Ukrainians this morning," he says.

"Shuttle diplomacy is difficult. It's tough," Waltz adds. "But we are going back and forth at every level, driving both sides to a ceasefire and both sides towards an end to the war."

Waltz did not answer when asked whether Russia targeted infrastructure, breaking the terms of what Trump and Putin agreed yesterday.

Additionally, Waltz was asked whether aid to Ukraine came up during the call between Trump and Putin. The Kremlin read-out of the call suggested that the two discussed the "rearmament" of Ukraine's armed forces.

"It did not," he responded.

Trump has no public events on his schedule today, although Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold a briefing at 13:00 EST (17:00 GMT).

Trump-Putin call seen as victory in Russiapublished at 13:26 Greenwich Mean Time 19 March

13:26 GMT 19 March

Steve Rosenberg
Russia editor

Image source, Reuters

Judging by some of the headlines today in Russia, Moscow believes that the latest telephone conversation between Presidents Putin and Trump went well - certainly for the Kremlin.

"Record-long Putin-Trump call," declares Komsomolskaya Pravda. The paper's website adds: "As things stand Russia has scored a diplomatic victory here."

Why are some in Russia claiming "victory" after this two-hour phone call?

Probably because, by the end of it, Vladimir Putin hadn't been pressured into making any major concessions to Ukraine or to the United States. On the contrary, he had - in effect - rejected President Trump's idea of an immediate unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

Not only did Moscow not agree to an unconditional ceasefire, President Putin set his own pre-conditions for peace.

They include an end to Western military aid to Kyiv and intelligence sharing with the Ukrainians, as well as a halt to mobilisation in Ukraine. Such conditions are widely viewed as a way of securing Ukraine's capitulation.

It's hard to see Kyiv agreeing to any of that. But could the Trump administration eventually be persuaded, by Moscow, that such conditions are acceptable?

Read Steve Rosenberg's full analysis.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky will speak today, the White House has confirmed.

No further details were provided.

Yesterday, Zelensky said that he would speak to Trump to "discuss the details of the next steps" following Trump's call with Vladimir Putin.

At a news conference in Helsinki, Zelensky said that while he is open to a ceasefire, he believes that the call between Trump and Putin showed that Russia "was not ready to end this war".

“They are not even prepared to take the first step toward a cease-fire because they will continue to impose additional conditions,” he said.

Jonathan Beale
Defence correspondent, reporting from Sumy, Ukraine

Ukrainian forces may have retreated from Russia’s Kursk region - but they are still there just over the border from Sumy.

In Sumy city itself we’ve heard constant artillery fire in the distance. There’s a large military presence with men in uniform and armoured vehicles on the road.

Over night a hospital was hit by a Russian drone in Sumy city. Fortunately there were no reported casualties - medical staff and patients having already sought shelter.

There is still deep scepticism inside Ukraine that talks between Presidents Trump and Putin will lead to any kind of ceasefire, yet alone peace in the near future.

One soldier who’d been fighting in neighbouring Kursk until recently described the talks as “absurd” - given the continuing fighting on the ground.

Image source, PA Media

UK PM Keir Starmer has just told Parliament that he spoke to Zelensky last night.

Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions, Starmer said he called the Ukrainian president "to discuss progress that President Trump had made with Russia towards a ceasefire".

Starmer notes that during the call, he "took the opportunity to reaffirm our unwavering support to the people of Ukraine".

• Follow our live coverage of PMQs here

• There were more air attacks between Russia and Ukraine overnight
• Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of attacking energy facilities, despite a pledge to avoid such targets for 30 days
• It prompted Zelensky to say that Putin's "words are very much at odds with reality"
• Ukraine is also accused of targeting a Russian oil storage facility in Krasnodar, the Kremlin says
• Two hospitals in Ukraine's northern Sumy region were hit by Russian drone strikes, Ukrainian officials say

• At a news conference with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Zelensky, Stubb said that Ukraine has an "undeniable right to defend itself" against Russian aggression
• Zelensky says he'll speak to Donald Trump later today to learn details about his call with Putin - the pair have a tense relationship and during a White House meeting two weeks ago, tensions boiled over

For context: During a call with Trump on Tuesday, Putin agreed to pause attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for 30 days as part of a limited ceasefire - but rejected a complete halt to fighting. You can read more about this here