Thinking time

I hope there's some internal discussion about how to cover the Ukraine story on BBC television news over the coming weeks and months. It's possible, because BBC News has the resources, to have people standing outside venues around the world, marking 'talks' without much insight into what's being said behind closed doors. Bulletins can easily be filled with this coverage of process, whereas context and perspective, more difficult to produce, are what we need to wean us all from chaos addiction.

I'd like to understand a little more about what passed between the US and Russia BEFORE the Trump/Putin phone call. Sherpas must have been at work - both parties needed the conversation to look significant - and Hegseth's speech, on February 12th, had plenty of meat, plus evidence of serious thinking, as well as shock factor.  Since then, Trump, Hegseth and Vance have strayed further from that outline, as if they don't understand the complexities that their diplomats are handling. Are, behind the scenes, Russia and the USA in accord on a desired outcome, or is their some genuine negotiation to be done ?