This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Nick Miles, and in the early hours of Thursday, the 13th of February, these are our main stories.

There's been a flurry of initiatives from the United States on the war in Ukraine,

with Donald Trump holding separate phone calls with Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky.

The new US Defence Secretary has ruled out Ukrainian membership of NATO.

Egypt and Qatar say they're stepping up diplomatic efforts to save the ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Hundreds of people who'd been working in scam centres in Myanmar have crossed into Thailand after attempt to shut down

the operations. Also in this podcast, it all started on Russia's largest island, a 1,000-kilometer

strip of land called Sakalin in the far east of Russia, just north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

So why did a group of Russians floating on a shrinking block of ice not want to be rescued?

Find out later.

Before returning to the White House, Donald Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine in just one day.

Now there seems to be the first concrete action towards achieving that, albeit belated goal.

He's spoken to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and a short time later to his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky.

In his nightly address, President Zelensky said the talks

had been positive.

I'm grateful to the president for his sincere interest in our shared potential and how we can work

together to achieve real peace. It was a lengthy discussion covering many diplomatic, military and

economic nuances.

President Trump also informed me what Putin told him.

We trust that America's strength, together with our efforts and those of all our partners,

will be enough to pressure Russia and Putin into peace.

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