Talks would come “step by step, gradually, starting from the expert level and then going through all the necessary stages,” says Russia’s foot-dragging foreign minister.

The brutal Russian attack using strategic bombers came just hours after Putin and Trump spoke on the phone about a potential road to peace in Ukraine.

LIVEBLOG: Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky will meet, Donald Trump has said after a White House summit with European leaders aimed at bringing an end to the Ukraine war.

Russia and Ukraine also said they swapped more bodies of their fallen soldiers on Tuesday as part of deals reached during peace talks in Istanbul earlier this year. “Today, we handed over 1,000 bodies of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers to the Ukrainian side.