Putin, Trump Plan to Meet as US Pushes to Include Zelenskiy

The Kremlin said Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are finalizing details for a meeting within the next few days, even as the White House insisted that the Russian leader still needed to agree to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The US and Russia have agreed on a venue for a meeting between their leaders, to be disclosed later, and “we are starting to work on specific issues,” with the aim of holding the talks next week, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters Thursday.

But a White House official cautioned that the US would not set a meeting unless Putin agreed to meet with Zelenskiy, and that no location had been set. Putin on Thursday told reporters he didn’t object to meeting Zelenskiy under the right conditions, though he said they don’t exist now.

Still, the Kremlin sought to build momentum for a meeting by suggesting plans were being completed a day after Putin met with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff for nearly three hours of talks in the Kremlin. Trump has threatened to hit purchasers of Russian oil with secondary tariffs unless Putin agrees to a truce by Friday as the US pushes for a deal to end the war that’s now in its fourth year.

After returning to the White House on a pledge to bring the war to a rapid end, Trump has voiced growing frustration over Putin’s refusal to accept a ceasefire following six phone calls between them since February. Trump said Wednesday he didn’t regard the latest developments as a “breakthrough,” though the first summit meeting between the two leaders since 2018 would imply they’ve made progress on a resolution.

The worry for Zelenskiy and his European allies is that Putin may persuade Trump to concede too much in reaching a settlement. They also have a multitude of doubts about how any agreement might be enforced and what security guarantees Ukraine will receive.

Zelenskiy said he and European allies discussed “various formats” of peace talks with Trump during a call on Wednesday, including “two bilateral and one trilateral” meeting between the three presidents. “Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side,” he said in a post on social media.

Putin told reporters the United Arab Emirates could be a suitable venue for the summit with Trump, during Kremlin talks with UAE President Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Thursday.

Russia didn’t respond when Witkoff raised the prospect of a trilateral meeting involving Putin, Trump and Zelenskiy, according to Ushakov. The Kremlin wants to focus first on talks between Putin and Trump, he said.

Zelenskiy said he and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz “coordinated our positions” during a phone call Thursday, and national security advisers from Ukraine, the US and Europe will hold an online meeting later to align positions.

“Ukraine and Germany share the view that the war must be ended as soon as possible with a dignified peace,” Zelenskiy said. “The parameters of ending this war will shape the security landscape of Europe for decades to come.”

Trump on Wednesday said there was a “very good chance” he’d meet with Putin, though cautioned there had not yet been a “breakthrough” in the talks.

“That road was long, and continues to be long, but there’s a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon,” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump continues to face critics who see a real risk that Putin is able to evade penalties even as he keeps up a war now in its fourth year.

“Trump is desperate to find something that he can call a win. Putin, I predict, will give him that,” said Michael Kennedy, international and public affairs professor at Brown University. “Trump will grasp at that while those better informed will appreciate the trap into which Trump falls.”

Putin has laid claim to Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, as well as the eastern and southern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson that his troops don’t fully occupy.

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