The Kremlin said that “contacts are being prepared at the expert level through the ministries of foreign affairs”. Adding that a Trump-Putin meeting is still on the cards but only after thorough preparations have been made. No further details were given as to where or when that might happen.

Meanwhile, Ukraine president Zelenskyy is to make a trip to Washington later this week here. It is presumably to sign a deal for mineral resources, but we’ll see about that. The Kremlin touched on that but isn’t commenting much: “Whether it will be (to sign) the aforementioned agreement or something else, we’ll see. There have been no official statements on this matter yet.”