"We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Trump described his call with Putin as “lengthy and highly productive” and thanked Putin “for his time and effort," emphasising their shared desire to halt the fighting without saying a word that it was Russia which sent troops into Ukraine.

Putin sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, amid Kyiv’s bid to join NATO that he described as a “red line” for Moscow. He had cast the alliance’s eastward expansion as a major threat to Russia and sought NATO’s guarantees that it would never offer membership to Ukraine.