MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he hopes to meet next week with U.S. President Donald Trump, possibly in the United Arab Emirates. The news came on the eve of a White House deadline for Moscow to show progress toward ending the 3-year-old war in Ukraine.
Putinβs foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov had said earlier a summit could possibly take place next week at a venue that has been decided βin principle.β
No location had been determined Thursday morning, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The U.S. was still expected toΒ impose additional sanctionsΒ Friday on Russia, the official said.
Ushakov brushed aside the possibility of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky joining the summit, something the White House had said Trump was ready to consider. Putin has spurned Zelenskyβs previous offers of a meeting to clinch a breakthrough.
βWe propose, first of all, to focus on preparing a bilateral meeting with Trump, and we consider it most important that this meeting be successful and productive,β Ushakov said, adding that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff’s suggestion of a meeting including Ukraine’s leader βwas not specifically discussed.β
Putin made the announcement in the Kremlin after his meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the UAE.
Asked who initiated the meeting, Putin said that didn’t matter and βboth sides expressed an interest.β
According to the White House official, a Trump-Putin meeting would not happen if the Russian leader does not agree to meet with Zelensky.
Speaking of Zelensky’s possible involvement, Putin said he has mentioned several times that he wasn’t against it, adding: βItβs a possibility, but certain conditions need to be createdβ for it to happen. The Kremlin has previously said that Putin and Zelensky should meet only when an agreement negotiated by their delegations is close.
Ukraine fears being sidelined by direct negotiations between Washington and Moscow.
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund who met with Witkoff on Wednesday, said a Trump-Putin meeting would allow Moscow to βclearly convey its position,” and he hoped a summit would include discussions on mutually beneficial economic issues, including joint investments in areas such as rare earth elements.
The meeting would be the first U.S.-Russia summit since 2021, when former President Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva. It would be a significant milestone towardΒ Trumpβs effortΒ to end the war, although thereβs no guarantee it would stop the fighting since Moscow and Kyiv remainΒ far apart on their conditions for peace.
Next week is the target date for a summit, Ushakov said, while noting that such events take time to organize and no date is confirmed. The possible venue will be announced βa little later,” he said.
Months of U.S.-led effortsΒ haveΒ yielded no progressΒ on stopping Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. The war has killed tens of thousands of troops on both sides as well as more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations.
Western officials have repeatedly accused Putin of stalling in peace negotiations to allow Russian forces time to capture more Ukrainian land. Putin previously has offered no concessions and willΒ only accept a settlement on his terms.
A Trump-Putin meeting on the war would be a departure from the Biden administrationβs policy of βnothing about Ukraine without Ukraineβ β a key demand from Kyiv.
At the start of his second term, Trump was conciliatory toward Putin, for whom he has long shown admiration, and even echoed some of his talking points on the war. But he recently has expressedΒ increasing exasperation with Putin, criticizing the Kremlin leader for hisΒ unyielding stanceΒ on U.S.-led peace efforts, and has threatened Moscow with new sanctions.
