U.S. President Donald Trump said he telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin late the previous night—about 1 a.m. in Moscow—and that the Russian leader "happily picked up." The conversation came immediately after Trump hosted a meeting with several European leaders at the White House, according to comments the president made on 19 Aug. Vice President JD Vance, speaking in subsequent television interviews, said the call took place in the East Wing without the usual advance diplomatic vetting, surprising the European delegation. Vance framed the move as an example of what he called Trump’s "no-BS" approach to diplomacy, adding that the president wanted to hear Putin’s reaction to the earlier talks without delay. Trump later wrote that the discussion with Putin began arrangements for a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to be followed by a trilateral session that would include Trump himself. The White House has not provided a timetable or venue for the proposed meetings, and officials in Moscow and Kyiv have yet to publicly confirm the outreach.