What happened the last (and only) time Putin and Zelenskyy met face to face?

Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy have not met in person since 2019.

Proposals for the two presidents to meet have been put forward numerous times in recent years, in order to try and get both sides to negotiate some form of a ceasefire to the three-and-a-half-year conflict.

But so far, it has not happened.

If Mr Putin and Mr Zelenskyy do agree to meet, it would mark only the second ever time the two leaders have sat down together.

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The first was in 2019, when the two sides discussed an end to the fighting in Ukraine's eastern region of the Donbas, where Ukrainian troops had been fighting Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

Here is what happened last time Mr Putin and Mr Zelenskyy came face to face.

What happened during the 2019 meeting?

To try and end fighting in the Donbas region, Mr Zelenskyy and Mr Putin travelled to Paris in December 2019 for the Normandy Format Summit - an informal forum that was set up by French, German, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats after the conflict in the Donbas began.

It came after Mr Zelenskyy, who had never held political office, became Ukrainian president in May of the same year.

In the election, he beat Petro Poroshenko - a billionaire confectionery magnate and former Ukrainian foreign minister - who had met and spoken directly with Mr Putin on numerous occasions, but had failed to solve the conflict with Russia.

Alongside French president Emmanuel Macron and then German chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr Putin and Mr Zelenskyy sat opposite each other at a round table to discuss how they would end the conflict that had led to thousands of deaths.

The summit did lead to some agreements between the two nations. This included implementing "all necessary ceasefire support measures" before the end of 2019 and to release all prisoners of war.

Agreements were also made to disengage troops in three further areas of the Donbas region by the end of March 2020 - both Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed rebels had already pulled out of three frontline locations in the months before the meeting.

Both sides also said they wished to implement the political provisions of the Minsk agreements, which were signed back in 2014 and 2015 as a first attempt to secure a ceasefire between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists.

The agreements included a roadmap for elections in the occupied regions of Luhansk and Donetsk and a plan to reintegrate the territory into the rest of Ukraine.

What happened after?

The 2019 meeting was seen at the time as an important step forward in ending the conflict, and some prisoner exchanges did take place, but it failed to provoke any real long-term change.

Russia and Ukraine continued to disagree on issues including the withdrawal of Russian-backed troops and elections in areas of Ukraine held by separatist rebels.

The summit then took place again in Paris in January 2022, but was instead attended by representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, not the four leaders. In February 2022, senior diplomats met again, this time in Berlin, to try and find a way out of the conflict.

Weeks later, on 24 February, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In an address to the French parliament in March 2022, Mr Zelenskyy said the invasion had "ruined" the efforts of the Normandy Format.

How is Trump involved?

Unlike the 2019 discussions, America has been heavily involved in trying to secure peace between the neighbouring countries.

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In May, it was Mr Trump who heavily encouraged Mr Zelenskyy to "immediately" accept Mr Putin's invitation to talks in Istanbul, Turkey, going as far to say he was "thinking" of attending himself.

In the end it was Mr Putin who did not attend the talks he proposed, a clear snub to the US leader, Paste BN' US correspondent Mark Stone said at the time.

Read more from Paste BN:
Key moments in Trump and Zelenskyy's relationship
Sky correspondent on her run-in with Trump loyalist
Michael Clarke Q&A on Ukraine

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Mr Trump then met Mr Putin for a pivotal summit in Alaska. It marked the first time the pair had seen each other in the flesh since 2019, before Russia launched it full-scale attack on Ukraine in 2022.

In Washington DC, Mr Zelenskyy and Mr Trump met with seven European leaders - including Sir Keir Starmer - to keep discussions going.

In an important step towards a peace deal, Mr Trump promised that the US would be involved in providing security guarantees for Ukraine.

A bilateral meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Zelenskyy was also agreed to, with a trilateral meeting with Mr Trump to follow. No date or location has yet been confirmed for the talks.

Mr Zelenskyy has previously proposed Rome as a meeting place but countries such as France, Finland, Spain and Germany think a more neutral location, such as Geneva, would be easier.

Separately, Turkey has also twice pitched hosting talks.