The US president also is reportedly planning to hold a trilateral meeting with Russia’s president and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky
US President Donald Trump intends to hold a personal meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as early as next week, the New York Times reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter. The American president reportedly unveiled his plan during a phone call with a number of European leaders.
The report comes just hours after Trump praised a meeting between Putin and US special envoy Steve Witkoff earlier on Wednesday, calling it “very productive.” According to the US president, “great progress” was achieved during the nearly three-hour-long talk, and the sides agreed to work on ending the Ukraine conflict “in the days and weeks to come.” He did not reveal any further details.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump also said he had updated some of America’s European allies on the results of the meeting in Moscow. According to NYT, Trump announced his plans during a phone call that included British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Witkoff.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky was reportedly on the phone call as well. According to NYT, Trump also announced his plans to hold trilateral talks with both Putin and Zelensky shortly after meeting with the Russian president one-on-one.
No European leaders are expected to attend the planned meetings, the media outlet claimed, adding that those on the phone call “accepted” Trump’s plan.
Zelensky has confirmed he had a “conversation with President Trump” and stated that he wanted to see Kiev’s conflict with Moscow come to an end.
Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a meeting between Trump and Putin was not on the agenda at the moment. On Wednesday morning, he told journalists that normalizing relations between the US and Russia to the extent necessary for the two presidents to meet will take time due to an “unprecedented number” of mutual irritants.
Moscow has repeatedly said it is open to a peace deal provided the realities on the ground are taken into account and the root causes of the Ukraine conflict are resolved during peace talks.
