Trump says likely to meet Putin 'very soon'
The potential summit was discussed in a call between Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky that, according to a senior source in Kyiv, included NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and the leaders of Britain, Germany and Finland.
"There's a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon," Trump told reporters Wednesday at the White House, when asked when he would meet the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.
He gave no indication where the meeting with Putin might take place. It would be the first US-Russia leadership summit since former president Joe Biden met with his counterpart in Geneva in June 2021.
The New York Times and CNN, citing people familiar with the plan, said Trump plans to sit down with Putin as early as next week, and then wants a three-way meeting with the Russian leader and Zelensky.
"It seems that Russia is now more inclined to agree to a ceasefire; the pressure on them is working. But the main thing is that they do not deceive us or the United States in the details," Zelensky said on Wednesday evening.
Trump's phone call with Zelensky came after US envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian leadership in Moscow earlier in the day for talks described by the Kremlin as "productive" -- with Trump's deadline looming to impose fresh sanctions over Russia's war in Ukraine.
"Great progress was made!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding that afterward he had briefed some European allies.
"Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come," he said.
Minutes later, however, a senior US official said that "secondary sanctions" were still expected to be implemented in two days' time.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Witkoff was returning with a ceasefire proposal from Moscow that would have to be discussed with Ukraine and Washington's European allies.
He also cast caution on the timeline for a Trump-Putin meeting, saying there was "a lot of work ahead," adding it could be "weeks maybe."
- Long process -
Trump, who had boasted he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office, has given Russia until Friday to make progress towards peace or face new penalties.
Three rounds of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul have failed to make headway on a ceasefire, with the two sides far apart in their demands.
POOL/AFP | Gavriil Grigorov
Russia has escalated drone and missile attacks against its neighbor, a US and European Union ally, to a record high and accelerated its advance on the ground.
"A quite useful and constructive conversation took place," Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists, including AFP, after the three-hour meeting with Witkoff.
The two men exchanged "signals" on their positions, Ushakov said, without elaborating.
Zelensky confirmed his call with Trump and confirmed European leaders had taken part, although he did not name them.
- Sanctions threat -
Trump has voiced increasing frustration with Putin in recent weeks over Russia's unrelenting offensive.
The White House has not officially outlined what action it would take against Russia, but Trump told reporters it plans to impose "a lot more secondary sanctions" targeting Russia's key trade partners, possibly targeting China.
Earlier in the day he had ordered steeper tariffs on Indian goods over New Delhi's continued purchase of Russian oil.
Without explicitly naming Trump, the Kremlin on Tuesday slammed "threats" to hike tariffs on Russia's trading partners as "illegitimate."
Russia's campaign against Ukraine since February 2022 has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed swaths of the country and forced millions to flee their homes.
Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede more territory and renounce US and EU support if it wants the fighting to stop.
Kyiv is calling for an immediate ceasefire, and Zelensky last week urged his allies to push for "regime change" in Moscow.
- Nuclear rhetoric -
AFP | Roman PILIPEY
The Witkoff visit came as Moscow-Washington tensions are running high.
Trump said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be moved following an online row with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, and that they were now "in the region."
Moscow then said that it was ending a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear-capable intermediate-range missiles, suggesting that it could deploy such weapons in response to what it alleged were similar US deployments within striking distance of Russia.
bur-ft/aha/st/tc/ach
By Frankie Taggart
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Maverick
3 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Sanction Rosatom and send clear signal that occupation of nuclear plants will not be tolerated
The occupation by Russia of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) is the first instance in history where a nuclear power plant has been militarily occupied and operated for over three years during active warfare. The deadline that US President Donald Trump had established for Russia to start a ceasefire, stop its aggression against Ukraine, or otherwise face the threat of sanctions was 8 August 2025. This was the sixth time that Trump had demanded that Vladimir Putin stop the war; however, Putin had previously declined such offers. The day passed uneventfully. During the 11 years of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, numerous peace initiatives have emerged, including the African Peace Mission. But analysts see little sign that Putin is prepared to abandon his intention to take control of Ukraine. In 2022, Russia declared in its Constitution that four Ukrainian regions were part of its territory, but failed to fully take over any of them militarily. Now Putin would have to amend the Russian constitution to halt the aggression at the current frontline — a highly risky political move that could bring about the end of his political power. Thus, he is demanding that Ukrainians leave their homes 'voluntarily' because the Russian army failed to take these territories by force. In July this year, Russia launched more than 6,000 drones and fired dozens of missiles targeting Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, killing civilians far from the frontline. Just in the first half of this year, 6,754 civilians have been killed or injured, according to the UN. The war remains intense, and no one is safe in Ukraine. Nevertheless, hopes are high again for 15 August, when Trump is expected to meet with Putin in Alaska, the territory the US once bought from Russia. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has previously spoken in support of Ukraine's territorial integrity, also spoke with both the Russian and Ukrainian presidents last week, raising expectations that a ceasefire may be possible. Sanctions The expectations are that Trump can speak from a position of strength and threaten sanctions. However, given Russia's negligible trade with the US, what sanctions could Trump introduce that would be meaningful? The Russian state budget used to receive about 50% of its revenue from oil and gas exports; this had already dropped to 30% in 2024. Further sanctions could seriously undermine the Kremlin's ability to fund the war, which is expensive to run. In 2025, a record 40% of Russia's state budget has been allocated to defence and security. Another 6%-10% of revenue comes from the Russian state agency Rosatom, which serves a dual role: developing civilian nuclear reactors and acting as a strategic arm of the Kremlin's military sector by producing parts for non-nuclear weapons and other defence technologies. Rosatom's subsidiaries supply components to Russia's military-industrial complex, including drone technologies. Some of these facilities, such as the drone production factory in Alabuga, have been accused by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime of recruiting African women aged 18 to 22 to drone production under allegedly false promises of a 'work-study programme'. Rosatom, whose regional office has operated in South Africa since 2012, plays a key role in the military occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest nuclear power plant, seized by Russian military forces in March 2022 and turned into a geopolitical hostage. The occupation of the plant is the first instance in history where a nuclear power plant has been militarily occupied and has been operated for more than three years during active warfare. Rosatom plays a key role in this precedent. The violations of the International Atomic Energy Agency's seven nuclear safety pillars — the physical integrity of facilities, operability of safety systems, autonomy of staff decision-making, secure off-site power, uninterrupted logistics, effective radiation monitoring and reliable communication with regulators — have already been documented at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The detailed analysis of these violations and what they mean for the African continent is presented in the Policy Brief on Nuclear Safety during Military Invasion, presented ahead of the African Union's Mid-Year Coordination Meeting in Accra in July 2024. The brief presents a comprehensive case study of nuclear vulnerability during wartime and calls for urgent action by African countries, including South Africa, to prevent similar situations on the continent. However, the challenges at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant go beyond the risk of physical damage to the facility. In May 2025, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reported that 13 Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant employees had been abducted, including three cases this year. The whereabouts of at least one detained worker remains unknown. The organisation also documented forced labour, coerced union membership and serious occupational safety risks for staff. Pressure to sign contracts More than 40 documented witness accounts by human rights organisations such as Truth Hounds suggest that since March 2022, Rosatom experts were fully aware of the pressure that the military personnel were putting on the nuclear operators to sign contracts with Rosatom. They were aware of interrogations, detentions, torture, psychological coercion and decisions to deny shift rotations. This is not a technical dispute. It is a systematic breach of international humanitarian law and nuclear safety norms, and of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. International mechanisms such as the UN have been powerless in the face of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant occupation. In July 2024, the UN passed a resolution — 'Safety and security of nuclear facilities of Ukraine, including the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant' — condemning the Russian occupation of the plant and calling for the immediate withdrawal of military forces to ensure global nuclear safety. Many African countries supported this resolution, recognising the threat to international peace posed by the militarisation of a civilian nuclear site. In addition, 13 African states — including Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia — endorsed the Peace Summit Communiqué in Switzerland, affirming Ukraine's sovereign control over its nuclear sites. However, these international documents lack binding power. Torture Instead, sanctions or a refusal to cooperate with organisations that support torture could reduce the funding available for the war. Such sanctions can be implemented by any country that aims to promote human rights and nuclear safety. South Africa co-chairs the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Ukraine is one of the few countries that gave up its nuclear weapons, despite holding the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal prior to 1994. That year, it voluntarily disarmed, joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty, accepted International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, and allowed international inspections. In return, the US, the UK and Russia committed to respecting and protecting Ukraine's borders and sovereignty. The silence and acceptance of military risks, and the violations of international labour practices, corporate responsibilities and human rights, show why governments that want to protect their population must act — not in reaction to a European war, but in defence of their own nuclear future. DM Dzvinka Kachur is with the Ukrainian Association of South Africa. Volodymyr Lakomov and Ilko Kucheriv are with the Democratic Initiatives Foundation.
Daily Maverick
3 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Ukrainian POW camp where an African who fought for Russia waits for the end of war
Daily Maverick joins a group of African journalists on a tour of a prisoner-of-war camp in western Ukraine. Mohamed Salah is a 23-year-old would-be Android IT developer from Egypt. Now, he is being held in a prisoner-of-war camp in western Ukraine, with a release date which is probably as uncertain as the duration of the war itself. Salah was studying IT Android programming in Russia last year, when his visa expiry date loomed. He was told he needed a Russian passport to remain in the country to complete his studies. The only way he could get a Russian passport was to volunteer for military service. He did that and was called up to fight on the frontline in Ukraine. After three months of training, he was thrown into the ferocious warfare in Ukraine's eastern province of Donetsk, which he doesn't want to talk about. He was injured by a Ukrainian drone on his first mission. He says his wound was 'dangerous' but that the Ukrainians treated him well in a hospital in Dnipro before he was moved to the capital, Kyiv, and then here. There have been reports of other Africans being tricked into fighting for Russia after being lured to the country under false pretences. But Salah said he knew what he was getting into — even though he regrets volunteering and said he wouldn't do it again. He now believes Russia's war against Ukraine is wrong. He is optimistic that he will be a free man soon. He believes that as a soldier who served Russia as well as any Russian, he should be part of one of the regular prisoner-of-war swaps between the two countries. However, he noted, none of the foreign soldiers being held in the camp where he was had been freed — only Russian nationals. 'Are you being discriminated against?' Daily Maverick asked him. 'Maybe after the war,' he would be released, he replied, and would then return to Russia to complete his studies. He has a wife and daughter in Russia and parents in Egypt, where he would like to visit soon, but he thinks there may be a case against him there for joining a foreign military force (which is also an offence in South Africa). Salah says the general treatment he receives in the prison is 'normal'. Like others, he works an eight-hour daily shift, in his case making wire and wooden frames for beehives. 'Josh', a Ghanaian held in the prison, was deceived into fighting for Russia, according to an account he gave to the Ghanaian journalist Kent Mensah, who was part of a group of African journalists, including Daily Maverick, who were shown around the prison by Ukrainian authorities. Mensah wrote in Africa Report that Josh was in Moscow last year, planning to begin studying, but missed a deadline to register, and his visa was about to expire. A Nigerian acquaintance, Kylian, offered him a job as a security guard in territory captured by the Russian military. 'The job came with promises of a fast-tracked Russian passport and a monthly salary of 195,000 roubles (around $2,480). It sounded like salvation.' Hit by a bomb Josh signed a contract in July 2025, but instead of guarding buildings, he was given a crash course in military training. Then he was sent to the frontline in Donetsk, where a bomb dropped by a Ukrainian drone hit the tank he was in, killing eight of his comrades. He was captured. An Ecuadorian national, William Vladimir Luje Kimia, had a similar experience to the Egyptian Salah. He had been studying engineering in the southwestern city of Rostov-on-Don for three years, earning money by doing various jobs, including chef and programmer. Then Russia invaded Ukraine, and the West retaliated with sanctions against the Russian banking system. Kimia ran out of money and faced deportation, so he joined the Russian army to get a Russian passport to guarantee his continued residence in Russia. He was badly injured last year in the fierce fighting around the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk province when a bullet grazed his lung. He was captured and spent three months recuperating in a Ukrainian hospital. The Ukrainian authorities told Daily Maverick that there was also a South African in the camp, but he did not wish to be interviewed. The building that houses the camp has a rugged industrial look and dates back to at least World War Two, when it was first used by the Germans to imprison Soviet soldiers as the Germans marched eastward, then later by the Russians to confine Germans when the German army retreated. After that, it became a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts. A prison official told us that there were many non-Russian POWs 'because Russia goes to great lengths to recruit people from other countries — in Africa, Asia and South America — to try to show they are receiving global support for their war, which is a lie'. The camp seemed, from our tour, to be reasonably comfortable. The beds looked okay, the water was hot, and the prisoners got soap, toothpaste and deodorant. They work an eight-hour shift in the hospital or kitchen or in the workshops making basic things like garden furniture and, rather anomalously, Christmas trees. They get paid $9 a month 'for chocolates', as our guide said, which they can buy along with other goodies at the tuckshop. They get one hour off for exercise, which could be playing soccer or pumping iron in the gym. The wardens said they eat the same food as the inmates. We tried it and it was tolerable. The POWs also get parcels of food from their families, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other charities. The ICRC visits every two months and stays for two weeks to check that the prisoners are not being abused, said the prison authorities. They do not see the full ICRC reports, only the recommendations for changes, which, they said, were minor, such as a prisoner requesting a cat for psychological comfort, which was refused. We met no prisoners of Russian nationality. Jailed for murder We did, however, meet a pro-Russian separatist, Andrey Maslov (58), making garden furniture in the prison workshop. He is a Ukrainian national from Donetsk province, and joined the Russian army in exchange for freedom from the prison where he was serving a sentence for murder. He was promised freedom after six months of fighting, but that didn't happen. He was captured after two years of military service. 'Even my prison term has now expired,' he remarked ruefully. 'To be honest, no one needs this war.' When we picked him from a lineup in the courtyard, Igor Zubachov seemed to be Russian. But it turned out that he was also a Ukrainian from Russian-occupied Donetsk, and like Maslov, a pro-Russian separatist. He was mobilised by the Russian army in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He was in charge of a medical evacuation unit and, during the fierce fighting around Avdiivka in Donetsk, was ambushed by Ukrainian soldiers while picking up wounded Russian soldiers. He had been in prison for 26 months. Our interview soon turned into a rather heated but frank debate between African journalists, Ukrainian officials and Zubachov. He said everything was fine in this prison, but at his first prison in the east, 'they hit and tortured me … but it was no surprise because, as I was told, I was a Ukrainian fighting against my own'. Prison officials escorting the journalists asked him why he was fighting against his people, and he replied that in his home in eastern Donbas, 'I saw civilians die, children die, so I joined the Russians to defend my family.' 'How did you feel about killing your fellow citizens?' asked an official. 'They were shooting at me, I was shooting at them,' he replied. Would he do it again? Yes, he said, but not because he wanted anyone to die at his hands, 'but because I would still have had no choice'. However, later he said that if he were to be freed in an exchange, he would not return to fighting. He said he wanted Donetsk to be part of Russia. 'I was thinking of that happening in a peaceful way, but the way it did happen was terrifying.' Colonel Andriy Chernyak of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence Agency told us that Russia had resettled eastern Ukraine with Russians after wiping out much of the Ukrainian population in the Holodomor, the genocidal famine of 1932-1933. 'Due to propaganda, those people considered themselves Russians exclusively.' In reality, he said, 'Russia uses these people as cannon fodder. They don't know if they will be exchanged because Russians don't consider those people their own.' DM Peter Fabricius was among a group of African journalists who recently conducted a study tour to the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine, sponsored by the governments of those three countries and the European Union.
Daily Maverick
3 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Kyiv's spirit endures while under siege and fighting for survival.
Next week Sunday is Independence Day in Ukraine. The 24th is a big day for many people I know, including the team I am working with on the film series Kyiv Of Mine that goes live that day on YouTube. Another important date was last Friday when Donald Trump suggested he was going to put Vladimir Putin under pressure. No one in Ukraine believed this, and of course, it never happened. The next key date is this coming Friday, as Trump is apparently meeting Putin in Alaska. If they do meet to discuss the future of Ukraine, and Zelensky is not there, then what kind of a circus is this? As former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said recently: 'Trump has given Putin a giant gift – a meeting for the imperial dictator and war criminal with the president of the United States of America in the United States.' In Ukraine life goes on, bombs and all. As someone said to me recently in Kyiv: 'We want to keep on living. But not in bomb shelters.' It is often surreal and very hard to comprehend. You can be sitting in a cool, trendy eating spot, having a gourmet pizza, and the next minute an air raid siren goes off, and the vibe changes. The full-scale war is in its fourth year and there is no end in sight. Most now believe that it will only end when Putin dies, and even then, no one is sure it will end. This is not Putin's war. This is a Russian invasion. In Kyiv the mood is low. Everyone is so tired, and anxious. No one can plan a future in this current state. Halfway through the war, towards the autumn of 2023, there was optimism in Ukraine. You could feel the spirit wherever you turned. There was the anticipated counteroffensive, the attacks on Ukrainian cities were not as vicious or as often, and whoever wanted to volunteer to go to the army did so. In the autumn of 2023 there was this thinking that the war was a temporary thing. And now we can see it is a permanent thing. There seems to be no vision now – just a big, deadly grind that will go on for years. Read more: War in Ukraine By 2024 the mood had changed a lot. The counteroffensive of the previous year did not yield the results everyone had hoped for. Russia started to hit the electrical and heating infrastructure of Ukraine. And the Ukrainian military went on a big recruitment drive, with new mobilisation laws coming into effect. Then the promised American aid was stalled by more than seven months, and when Trump was elected president towards the end of that year, the mood hit an all-time low. Trump has not been good to Ukraine, but everyone lives in hope. He is making a lot of encouraging noises in the media of late, but most people don't have faith that he will actually do something to make Putin's life more difficult. Now, in the second half of 2025, life still goes on in Ukraine, but people are struggling more than ever. Alcoholism, smoking and online gambling are on the rise. Divorce rates are sky-high. Trauma is everywhere. You see amputees in the city. Not many, but enough to notice. The number will keep rising. The economy is tight, and nothing is easy or simple. And, of course, people are dying. Innocent people are being hit by missiles and drones just about every other night. Then there is also the destruction. If a dozen people die during a night in a Ukrainian city then that is terrible. But what we don't read about in the news are the hundreds more who lost their homes and businesses in an evening strike. What happens to all these people? So many families have lost everything. And this terror does not stop. Day after day. Night after night. I am struggling with the pain and trauma, which is nonstop. I don't sleep well at night, and last week a person we knew well died in the front lines. It is one big tragedy. This man, Ivan, was the kindest, humblest person and he has left behind two kids. It is all so unjust and sad. And for what? No one in Ukraine understands the point of this war. Ukraine posed no threat to Russia. This is all just some insane imperial conquest by Russia. Putin is evil – that is my view. And this evil will not stop, unless it is stopped. Please support Ukraine. Please try to watch the Kyiv Of Mine film series when it goes live. This is a nonprofit venture and we are all hoping it inspires some fresh new interest in and support for Ukraine. DM
