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Putin says he hopes to meet US president next week, possibly in United Arab Emirates
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US leader Donald Trump says he will meet the Russian president even if Vladimir Putin refuses to meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Mr Trump, when asked whether Putin would need to meet Mr Zelensky to secure a meeting with the US, said: “No, he doesn’t. No.”
Mr Putin has said he hopes to meet Donald Trump next week, possibly in the United Arab Emirates.
Earlier, a Kremlin aide confirmed the pair would discuss a ceasefire in the Ukraine war.
Despite Mr Trump suggesting there was “a good chance” of a summit involving Mr Zelensky, Mr Ushakov said that a trilateral meeting “was for some reason mentioned by Washington” but had not been discussed with the Kremlin.
The venue for the meeting has been decided and is due to be announced later, he added.
A face-to-face meeting would be the first between a sitting US and Russian president since Joe Biden met Mr Putin in Geneva in June 2021, eight months before Russia launched the biggest attack on a European nation since the Second World War.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa held a phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on the Ukraine crisis and issues of bilateral interest, Ramaphosa’s office said.
“The discussion followed President Putin’s request to brief President Ramaphosa on the peace process with Ukraine and to engage on issues of mutual bilateral interest,” a statement read.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has said he hopes to meet next week with Donald Trump, possibly in the United Arab Emirates – although a White House official cast doubt on the summit occurring unless the Kremlin leader also agreed to a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Speaking of possible direct talks with Mr Zelensky, Mr Putin said he had mentioned several times that he was not against it, adding: “It’s a possibility, but certain conditions need to be created” for it to happen.
He made the announcement in the Kremlin after meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the UAE.
Asked who initiated the possible talks with the American president, Mr Putin said that didn’t matter and “both sides expressed an interest”.
US president Donald Trump has said Russia’s Vladimir Putin does not have to agree to meet Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in order to have a meeting with him.
Ukrainians are increasingly eager for a settlement that ends the fight against Russia’s invasion, according to a new Gallup poll published today.
The survey conducted in early July found about seven in 10 Ukrainians say their country should seek to negotiate a settlement as soon as possible.
But only about one-quarter say it’s “very” or “somewhat” likely that active fighting will end within the next 12 months, while about seven in 10 think it’s “somewhat” or “very” unlikely that active fighting will be over in the next year.
The enthusiasm for a negotiated deal is a sharp reversal from 2022 – the year the war began – when Gallup found that about three-quarters of Ukrainians wanted to keep fighting until victory.
A face-to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin would be the first between a sitting US and Russian president since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.
This came eight months before Russia launched the biggest attack on a European nation since the Second World War.
Trump himself last met Putin in Helsinki in 2018 where the two men held nearly two hours of closed-door talks in the capital city.
In March this year, Putin gifted Trump a portrait of the US president commissioned by him and sent via Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff when he was in Moscow for a meeting.
Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky have not met since December 2019 and make no secret of their contempt for each other.
However, Zelensky has issued open invitations to his Russian counterpart for a face-to-face meeting to negotiate an end to the war.
Chris Stevenson explains why Ukraine launched an audacious cross-border attack on Putin’s forces in Russia:
The US has a better understanding of the conditions under which Russia would be prepared to end its war in Ukraine after president Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met with Vladimir Putin, secretary of state Marco Rubio said.
The key elements of any ceasefire agreement would involve territory, he said.
“For the first time perhaps since this administration began, we have some concrete examples of the kinds of things that Russia would ask for in order to end the war,” Rubio said in an interview with Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow”.
Russia is now more inclined to agree to a ceasefire in the Ukraine war, president Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday.
In a social media post yesterday evening, Zelensky said he and Donald Trump spoke on the phone after US special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Vladimir Putin.
He said “European leaders also participated in the conversation,” and “we discussed what was said in Moscow.”
“It seems that Russia is now more inclined to agree to a ceasefire,” Mr Zelensky said, adding that the pressure on Moscow “is working,” without elaborating.
The Ukrainian war-time leader stressed it was important to make sure Russia does not “deceive us or the United States” when it comes to “the details” of a potential agreement.
Kyiv proposes that Ukraine and its allies soon “talk to determine our position, our common position, and our common view.”
If the proposed bilateral talks between the US and Russia go beyond a ceasefire in Ukraine and encompass wider issues of security, that might be sufficient to convince Putin to show up – and even invite Zelensky along, too, says Mary Dejevsky:
And on the battlefield:
What next?
Putin touted the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a potential location for the summit.
With the venue yet to be announced, all eyes are on where the two presidents could meet.
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