REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed strengthening cooperation on Saturday in a telephone call that also addressed the need to resolve Ukraine’s eastern conflict through diplomacy, Poroshenko said in a statement. “That was probably an issue,” said the American operative, “but there are a lot of forces at play here.”

The other operative, a political consultant with connections to the Poroshenko administration, said “the administration is furious with the meeting.” The consultant said Poroshenko’s team intends to take the position that the meeting “wasn't important, and they will try to ignore it as much as possible.” But the consultant added that “diplomatically, it was a slap in the face.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, in a telephone call, discuss strengthening the two countries' strategic partnership with particular attention to the conflict in the Donbass, a Ukrainian region that borders Russia.