Russian President Vladimir Putin abruptly left a major event to attend a call from his American counterpart, Donald Trump.
Putin admitted that it would be "awkward to make him wait" and perhaps risk offending the famously impatient US president.
Signing off the event in between, Putin said, "Please don't be angry. I understand that we could talk more. But it's so awkward to make him (Trump) wait, he could get offended."
As described by Trump, the two leaders held a long conversation over the phone on Thursday and discussed Ukraine and Iran among other issues. He, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the conversation as it made no progress on the Ukraine peace deal.
"We had a call. It was a pretty long call. We talked about a lot of things, including Iran. We also talked about the war with Ukraine. I am not happy about that... No, I didn't make any progress with him (Russian President Putin) today..." Trump said.
According to the Kremlin, the phone call lasted an hour, with Putin making it clear that he remained firm on Russia's objectives.
"Our president said that Russia will achieve the aims it set, that is to say, the elimination of the root causes that led to the current state of affairs. Russia will not give up on these aims," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters, as quoted by AFP.
The two leaders held the phone call as the US pauses arms shipments to Kyiv and mounts pressure on Europe to step up support. Putin also urged diplomacy in the Middle East after the US strikes in Iran.