Hello and welcome to NewsHour.
It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London.
I'm Tim Franks.
And we're starting the programme with news of a telephone call,
a conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine.
We're told that their chat lasted more than two hours,
and in the style to which we've become accustomed,
it was the Russians who got their readout, their version of events, out first.
Indeed, almost as soon as the call was over, they started briefing Russian state media,
quoting President Putin as saying it had been informative, frank and useful.
Then indeed, we heard from the president himself.
We agreed with the President of the United States that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum regarding a possible future peace treaty,
outlining a number of positions,
such as the principles of resolution, the timeline for a potential peace agreement, and so on,
including the possible cessation of hostilities for a certain period in the event of reaching specific agreements.
Well, shortly after, there was some readout from Donald Trump on social media.
The tone and spirit of my conversation with President Putin was excellent,
that Russia and Ukraine will start negotiations on a ceasefire immediately,
and that the Vatican is interested in hosting those talks.
Let's hear first from Moscow,