U.S. President Donald Trump said he deliberately stepped out of a multilateral meeting with European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before telephoning Russian President Vladimir Putin, arguing that making the call in their presence would have been “disrespectful” to his Kremlin counterpart. In a Fox & Friends interview on Tuesday, Trump described a longstanding “warmth” in his relationship with Putin and claimed the Russian leader had gone “years” without direct contact with White House officials or European heads of government prior to the call. He said Putin took the late-night call “very happily” and insisted that maintaining personal rapport between the leaders of the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals is beneficial. Trump’s comments are likely to draw scrutiny from European partners, who have sought to present a united front over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The remarks come a day after the closed-door session in Washington, which focused on continued support for Kyiv and coordination of the recently imposed U.S. tariff on Chinese goods.