Putin-Trump summit to take place within days, Russia says
Russia and the US have agreed on a venue for the meeting and 'together with our American colleagues, we are starting to work on specific issues,' with a goal for the talks to take place next week, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters, according to the Interfax news service. He did not identify where the summit will be held.
The announcement came a day after Putin met with Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin for nearly three hours of talks as the US pushed for an end to Russia's war in Ukraine. Trump has threatened to hit purchasers of Russian oil with secondary tariffs unless Putin agreed to a truce by Friday in the war that's now in its fourth year.
Witkoff raised the idea of a trilateral meeting involving Putin, Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, though Russia did not comment on that proposal, Ushakov said. Russia wants to focus first on Putin-Trump summit, he said.
Trump said on Wednesday there was a 'very good chance' he would meet with Putin and Zelenskiy soon in another bid to broker peace between the two countries.
The US president informed allies that he was considering a summit during a phone call earlier on Wednesday that also included Zelenskiy. Trump was positive about the possibility of a ceasefire, according to several people with knowledge of the call.
He also suggested that Putin would be open to entering into peace talks in exchange for discussing land swaps, the people said. BLOOMBERG
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