A meeting between Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin could take place as early as next week, a top Kremlin aide said Thursday, as the US president’s deadline for Moscow to show progress in ending its war in Ukraine looms.
Preparations for the meeting are already underway, and although it was “difficult to say” how long they will take, the goal is for the meeting to take place next week, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti.
If the meeting does go ahead, it would be the first held between the leaders of the two countries since 2021, when Putin met former President Joe Biden in Geneva, Switzerland. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
On Wednesday, Trump said there was a “good chance” that the two leaders could meet “very soon” to discuss a potential end to the war in Ukraine, hours after special envoy Steve Wikoff met Putin.
Ushakov, a former Russian ambassador to Washington, did not confirm where the meeting would take place but said the location has already been agreed upon, and will be “announced later,” according to RIA.
But he played down the chances of trilateral talks between Putin, Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, something put forward by Witkoff, saying Moscow had not responded to the proposal.
Zelensky said Thursday that “various potential formats for leader-level meetings to bring peace” were discussed, including “two bilateral (meetings) and one trilateral.”
“Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side. It is time we ended the war,” he said in a post on social media.
Witkoff and Putin met in Moscow on Wednesday to discuss an end to Russia’s war, though Trump later said that there had not been a “breakthrough” between the two men. He was also cautious when questioned about the timeline for a deal, saying he has “been disappointed before with this one.”
The meeting, which saw Witkoff visit Russia for the fifth time this year, came after a frustrated Trump imposed a deadline on Moscow, which is due to expire on Friday, to agree to a ceasefire or face tough secondary sanctions, hitting countries that buy Russian oil with a 100% tariff.
Just hours after the meeting, the US leader imposed an additional 25% tariff on India as punishment for its imports of Russian oil.
Trump has been attempting to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine since taking office in January, having initially claimed he could end the war within 24 hours.
In the many months since, there has been little progress, with Russia insisting that it wants peace while simultaneously ramping up the scale of its attacks on Ukraine.
Critics have suggested Putin’s actions in recent months have been attempts to stall proceedings and buy time for his troops to gain further ground on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly expressed his growing frustration that Putin says one thing, but then does another.
“We had a deal done four times and then you go home and you see (that Russia) just attacked a nursing home or something in Kyiv. So what the hell was that all about?” the US leader said in an interview with the BBC last month.
Zelensky, who spoke to Trump following Wednesday’s meeting between Putin and Witkoff, said Wednesday that “it seems that Russia is now more inclined toward (a) ceasefire.”
“The pressure on Russia is working. But the main thing is that they do not deceive us in the details. Neither us, nor the United States,” the Ukrainian leader said during his nightly video address to the nation.
This story has been updated with additional details.
