Trump: European leaders to visit US for talks on war in Ukraine

He added that he would hold a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin “soon after” and signalled the transition to a second phase of sanctions against Moscow.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the sanctions, calling the appropriate “ide”, and urged European states to stop buying energy from Russia, the BBC writes.

The leaders' statements come at the time Russia has undertaken the biggest air strikes in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, killing four people and first hitting the main government building in Kiev./Periscopi/