After a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Washington DC, US President Donald Trump said that he spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and began the arrangements for a one-on-one meeting between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine.
Trump said that after the meeting between Russia and Ukraine, he will join the meeting and sit down with both the leaders to hold further talks. The location of this meeting is yet to be determined.
“This was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years,” he said on social media. Trump said US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and special envoy Steve Witkoff are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine.
Following the talks with Trump, Zelenskyy confirmed at a press conference that Russia proposed a bilateral meeting with Ukraine, followed by a tilateral meeting involving the US. Expressing his readiness for “any format” of meeting with Putin, Zelenskyy said his participation in the trilateral meeting would depend on how the first meeting goes.
He said holding talks is the only way to solve these “complicated and painful issues.” “I believe unconditionally we should meet and think about the further development of this path to the end of the war,” he said.
The Ukrainian President futher said that the meeting with Russia “must be without any conditions” since setting conditions reagrding a potential ceasefire or other matters will further lead Russia to also want to set conditions, which he said could potentially jeopardize the peace talks.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Trump, in his call with Putin, “agreed that there will be a meeting between the Russian president and the Ukrainian president within the next two weeks.”
Merz stressed that the meeting “must, like all meetings, be well-prepared; we will do this with President Zelenskyy.” He also reiterated that it would be “desirable, and more than that, that there be a ceasefire in Ukraine at the latest with this meeting.”
“President Zelenskyy, for his part, said that he can hardly imagine having such a meeting with Putin without there being a ceasefire,” he added.
During his meeting with Zelenskyy at the Oval Office, Trump earlier said that a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine was “unnecessary.” However, after an hour of closed-door meeting with EU leaders and Zelenskyy, Trump sid that “all of us would obviously prefer the immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace.”
He added that he backs a ceasefire because it would “immediately stop the killing.” Trump also reiterated that a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine is “very attainable” at this point in the war.
Meanwhile, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said the two presidents “spoke in favor” of continuing direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations, Russia state news agency Tass repored.
Ushakov also told Tass that they also discussed “the idea of raising the level of the direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations.”
