Plenty of warm words, few concrete commitmentspublished at 21:58 British Summer Time 19 May

21:58 BST 19 May

Gary O'Donoghue
Chief North America correspondent

Image source, Reuters

The two hour phone call produced plenty of warm words but little by way of concrete commitments.

So, no 30-day ceasefire at this stage; no announcement of a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin; no new deadlines; no indication of the promised negotiations being at the highest level, and no indication that Russia is prepared to make any concessions to its longstanding demands.

Perhaps the most telling phrase from Washington was when President Trump said the conditions for an end to the war will be negotiated between the two parties - Ukraine and Russia.

This from the man who has always insisted he is the only person who can bring about an end to the conflict.

Washington has, for some time now, been more than hinting that its patience is wearing out and that the administration could simply walk away from the situation.

For Ukraine, that could be disastrous, particularly if it was coupled with an end to military, humanitarian and intelligence assistance.

European leaders are still firmly behind President Zelensky, but without US muscle and money, their efforts may not be sufficient to sustain Ukraine's resistance.

We're now ending our live coverage of today's talks on peace in Ukraine but you can keep up to date with all the latest updates in our news story.

Thanks for joining us.

Adam Goldsmith
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

Crucial talks between key international players are continuing in an attempt to bring about peace in Ukraine.

Today, US President Donald Trump has made separate calls to both Russian President Putin and Ukraine's President Zelensky - but what's come from their conversations?

Donald Trump:

• The US president says his chat with Putin went "very well", adding that Russia and Ukraine would "immediately start negotiations towards a ceasefire"
• He says the talks show "progress", but suggests it should be left for the warring countries to decide the conditions for a ceasefire between themselves

Vladimir Putin:

• The Russian leader tells reporters that Russia is ready to work with Ukraine on reaching a memorandum for peace and is prepared to discuss "compromises" - though he doesn't clarify what this would involve
• He adds that he wants the "root causes of the crisis" to be addressed, but suggests that on the whole, negotiations were "on the right track"

Image source, Reuters

Volodymyr Zelensky:

• Ukraine's president suggests that he is considering a "high-level" meeting between Ukraine, Russia, the US, EU countries and Britain to end the war
• Zelensky also urges the US to not distance itself from discussions, adding that "what’s needed is a mirrored readiness from Russia to engage in meaningful talks"

Image source, Getty Images

Russian news agency Tass reports that the Kremlin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters there had been no talk about a timeframe for the ceasefire in Ukraine to begin.

As a reminder, US President Donald Trump earlier said Russia and Ukraine would "immediately" start ceasefire negotiations to end the war.

Tass also reports Ushakov suggested that Putin praised Trump's role in bringing Kyiv to the negotiating table and said the pair intended to continue their dialogue.

Zelensky reasserts his red linespublished at 20:54 British Summer Time 19 May

20:54 BST 19 May

James Waterhouse
Ukraine correspondent in Kyiv

Image source, Getty Images

After not one, but two phone calls with Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky has reasserted his red lines.

He says he won’t give in to Russia’s continued demands, which include the complete control of five Ukrainian regions.

"Ukraine won’t withdraw its troops on its own territories,” he said.

The president again committed to an agreed prisoner of war exchange, and said preparations were already being made for more direct talks with Moscow.

But there are two things he wants that he still isn’t getting.

Donald Trump won't condemn Vladimir Putin for his continued invasion, nor has he seriously threatened further sanctions to force him to agree to a ceasefire.

President Zelensky is also calling for a ceasefire before talks can begin. Today suggests there'll be even more talks about talks before any pauses in fighting.

Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent, travelling with Marco Rubio

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined the Trump-Putin call from his plane while travelling back from Europe, say officials.

We don’t yet have further details from officials onboard.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump has just been speaking from the White House's Rose Garden, briefly addressed the phone call with Vladimir Putin - although we did not get much in the way of details.

In his brief remarks on his call with Russia, during a bill signing aimed at combatting deep fakes, Trump said the 2.5-hour call shows "progress has been made".

"Hopefully we did something," Trump added. "We spoke to the heads of most of the European nations, and we're trying to get that whole thing wrapped up."

Trump again repeated that the war "should never have happened" and is costing the lives of thousands of people every week.

The US President also briefly joked that Putin told him that they [Russians] "respect" the First Lady, Melania Trump.

"What about me?" he responded. "It's okay. I'm okay with that."

It remains unclear whether we will hear from Trump again this afternoon.

Image source, Reuters

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has welcomed suggestions that the Vatican might be used to host peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

Donald Trump, after his phone call with Vladimir Putin, suggested that Pope Leo XIV had offered his new residence as a venue for talks.

"The Holy Father's willingness to host the talks at the Vatican was considered positive," Meloni says in a statement.

She adds: "Italy is ready to do its part to facilitate contacts and work for peace."

Image source, Reuters

We have some more now from President Zelensky, who is speaking at a press conference.

Zelensky says Kyiv is considering a high-level meeting between Ukraine, Russia, the US, EU countries and Britain as a move toward ending the war.

After speaking with Trump today, he says he wants the meeting to happen as soon as possible and that it could be hosted by Turkey, the Vatican or Switzerland.

His earlier call with the US president led to a conversation with the leaders of France, Finland, Germany, Italy and the European Union.

"I am very focused, it is a challenging (not easy) time for us now," he said.

A major prisoner swap between the two countries could also happen within days or weeks, he said.

What pressure, if any, has the US put on Putin?published at 20:04 British Summer Time 19 May

20:04 BST 19 May

Nomia Iqbal
North America correspondent

We’re still to receive a readout from the White House about what Trump and Putin discussed during today's call, but people will be looking closely at what exactly led Putin to say he’s ready to have talks with Ukraine.

Trump said last week that he needed to talk to Putin, and only then would there be a chance at peace talks.

The US president has often talked up his relationship with Putin and I imagine the White House will present today's talks as optimistic and hopeful.

But it will be interesting to see what pressure, if any, the US has put on Putin.

Trump has previously threatened to sanction Russia, which is already heavily sanctioned, but that's never come to any fruition. And, Vice-President JD Vance has talked about potential economic incentives. We know that Trump is a deal maker, so he may want to strike some kind of deal.

There’ll be critics of Putin looking to say he is just buying for time.

Many don’t trust him to go through with the talks. He was invited to Istanbul last week, but declined to go.

He’s now saying that he wants to talk to Ukraine but we know that there are war goals that Russia will not turn their backs on.

We're starting to hear some information from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the Trump-Putin call.

He's been holding a news conference, and says he told Trump not to make decisions about Ukraine "without us".

"I asked him not to make any decisions about Ukraine without us before his conversation with Putin," Zelensky says. "These are matters of principle for us and very important."

We'll bring you more from his remarks shortly.

Image source, Reuters

Relations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin since the start of the US president’s second term have been something of a rollercoaster ride.

Trump, who vowed ahead of his second term that he would end the war in Ukraine in his first 24 hours in office, initiated a kickstart to US-Russia relations earlier this year when he announced he would speak to Putin over the phone.

The two leaders spoke on 12 February, in what Trump described as a "highly productive” conversation.

However, in March, Trump departed from this position, saying he was “very angry” and “pissed off” with Putin after weeks of attempting to negotiate a ceasefire deal.

The US president criticised Putin for attacking Zelensky's credibility and threatened to impose a 50% tariff on countries buying Russian oil if the Russian president did not agree to a ceasefire.

Trump optimistic - but short on detailspublished at 19:11 British Summer Time 19 May

19:11 BST 19 May

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

In his Truth Social post, the US President sounded optimistic and upbeat about the prospects of peace - claiming that negotiations between the two countries will begin "immediately."

It's a very different tone than what we heard earlier from Putin, who said only that Russia is ready to work with Ukraine "on a memorandum of a possible future peace agreement" and would "define" matters including a "possible" ceasefire.

Neither Putin nor Trump's statements made any reference to timelines that would indicate when the fighting might actually stop. The reasons for Trump's optimism are not particularly clear.

The White House, for its part, will claim the call as a victory. Observers here in Washington were watching for any sign of disappointment or frustration from Trump - but, at least publicly, none of that seems to have materialised.

The Trump statement is also notable in that Trump was careful to frame any future peace as something that could be economically beneficial to both Russia and Ukraine, and clearly hopes that those arguments will help overcome any reluctance in Moscow and Kyiv.

The statement is also notable in that Trump made no mention of what he thinks the endgame actually looks like, having previously told reporters he believes it unlikely that Ukraine will recover much, if any, of the territory it has so far lost in this war.

President Trump has an event in about one hour's time, and although unrelated to his call, we may hear a bit more about it from him directly.

Image source, Getty Images

Although Donald Trump refused to reveal how long-awaited direct peace negotiations would be established between Russia and Ukraine, he did suggest a possible venue for the meeting.

"The Vatican, as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations," he wrote on social media.

This follows JD Vance's meeting with the newly-installed Pope Leo XIV this morning, where he invited the pontiff to the White House.

Trump has spoken with Putin. The plan was also for him to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and some Nato leaders.

In his latest post on Truth Social, which comes after his phone call with Putin, he lists who else he has spoken to today, these are:

• Volodymyr Zelensky
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
• French President Emmanuel Macron
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz
• Finland's President Alexander Stubb

More now from Trump's Truth Social post, as he says conditions for a ceasefire will be a negotiation between Ukraine and Russia "because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of".

On the call with Putin, the US president says the "tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent"

"If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later," he observes.

US President Donald Trump has just posted on Truth Social following his two hour call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He says believes the call went "very well", adding that "Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire and, more importantly bring and end to the war".

In our next post, we'll be bringing you more of what Trump has said in his social media statement.

Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring

Some more now from Putin, who has been speaking following his call with Trump.

"Contacts between participants in the Istanbul talks have resumed, which gives reason to believe that on the whole we're on the right track," Putin adds.

We're yet to hear from the US president, stay with us for all the latest developments.

Russia prepared to discuss compromises - but there's no claritypublished at 18:25 British Summer Time 19 May

18:25 BST 19 May

Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring

Image source, Reuters

There's no indication of a massive shift in Russia’s position as Putin yet again says the “root causes of the crisis” must be addressed – the reasons why Russia invaded Ukraine in the first place.

However, he raises the prospect of a joint “memorandum” with Ukraine, paving the way to a ceasefire and ultimately a peace deal with Ukraine, although the possible conditions in any of these documents remain as unclear as ever.

Another takeaway is that, according to Putin, the Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have continued contacts after the inconclusive talks in Istanbul.

After his lead negotiator in Istanbul, Vladimir Medinsky, Vladimir Putin also suggested that Russia is prepared to discuss “compromises” – but there’s no clarity on what they may be.

Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring

We can bring you some more now from Putin, who is quoted by Russian state media as saying "that Russia will offer and is ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum on a possible future peace agreement".

Russian state media agency Tass says this would also entail "a possible ceasefire for a certain period of time, should relevant agreements be reached".

Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring

Image source, Reuters

We're now hearing reports from Russian state media that Vladimir Putin has made comments following his phone call with US President Trump:

“It was a very informative and quite a frank conversation, and very useful in this respect. First of all, I thanked the US president for US support in resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on a possible peace agreement.

“The US president voiced his position on a ceasefire. For my part, I noted that Russia, too, favours a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. We simply must determine the most effective ways of moving towards peace.”