It is hard to overestimate the significance of the recent phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. He also noted that the presidents have instructed their teams to lay the groundwork for the summit.
The call on Wednesday marked the first known conversation between the US and Russian leaders since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Trump has since signaled that he is “okay” with keeping Ukraine out of NATO and suggested that it is “unlikely” that Kiev could regain all of the territory it has lost to Russia over the past decade. Trump also noted that the presidents had exchanged invitations to visit each other’s countries.