Trump and Putin call is under way and ‘going well’, White House says

US President Donald Trump's phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is under way and "going well", White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino has said. In a tweet, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino said that Trump is "currently" talking to Putin, with the call starting at 10:00 EDT (14:00 GMT). "The call is going well, and still in progress," he said. Just moments before Scavino posted, White House staffers said they were unsure whether the call was taking place. This marks the second known time the two leaders have spoken since Trump returned to office in January. Trump was only five days into his second term when he made a series of phone calls with world leaders, including one with Putin and another with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Kremlin said it was a "positive and constructive" conversation after the two leaders agreed to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. Unlike in January, where news of the call took the world by surprise, this time round leaders involved in peace negotiations have had a chance to chat with Trump before the call. French President Macron and UK Prime Minister Starmer confirmed that they spoke with Trump earlier this week, with the latter telling Trump Ukraine must be put in the "strongest possible position." The US president has said that he plans to discuss "land," "power plants," and "dividing up certain assets" with Putin. Earlier, the Kremlin leader railed against Western sanctions on Russia at a meeting of industrialists and entrepreneurs in Moscow. TIMING OF PUTIN'S APPEARANCE ON STAGE COINCIDES WITH TRUMP CALL The timing of Vladimir Putin’s appearance at the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs meeting in Moscow was interesting. He arrived there about half an hour before the time slot, during which his telephone conversation with Trump was expected to take place - 13:00-15:00 GMT, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. At 13:52, Russian state news agency Tass said President Putin left the venue. In the past, Putin has on numerous occasions been late to key meetings, such as his own press conferences, and made others wait. Last Thursday, US envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly arrived in Moscow shortly after noon local time, but was only able to meet Putin late in the evening. Trump later dismissed speculation by people he called “sick degenerates, external” in the media that his envoy was made to wait for hours. WHAT ARE PUTIN'S CONDITIONS FOR A CEASEFIRE? At a news conference last week, Putin said the idea of a 30-day ceasefire proposal was "right and we support it... but there are nuances". Some of the Russian leader's questions about the proposal included how the ceasefire would be enforced and who would order an end to the fighting. He asked: "How will those 30 days be used? For Ukraine to mobilise? Rearm? Train people? Or none of that? Then a question - how will that be controlled?" The Kremlin later said it shared the US's "cautious optimism" over a peace process, after Putin met with US envoy Steve Witkoff. However, Zelensky branded Putin's response as "manipulative" and called for more sanctions on Russia. Putin "doesn't say no directly", Zelensky said in his nightly video address, but "in practice, he's preparing a rejection".