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Trump tells European leaders he intends to meet with Putin and Zelensky

Trump tells European leaders he intends to meet with Putin and Zelensky

Boston Globe6 hours ago
The call also included the leader of the United Kingdom, the German chancellor, and the NATO secretary general, along with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
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Trump gave some details of the call in a post on his social media site, saying Witkoff had met for several hours in Russia with Putin. He did not mention his plans for his own summits.
'Afterwards, I updated some of our European Allies,' Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social. 'Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come. Thank you for your attention to this matter!'
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Trump held a one-on-one meeting with Zelensky at the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome earlier this year. The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, tried joining the meeting — which took place in St. Peter's Basilica — but was rebuffed by Trump, who generally prefers bilateral meetings.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for Witkoff and Vance, and a spokesperson for Rubio, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry S. Peskov, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has been stymied for months in his efforts to find a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, after more than three years of war. Trump has been a skeptic of US military aid to Ukraine, and he dressed down Zelensky in a remarkable Oval Office meeting as cameras rolled earlier this year. Still, in frustration with the slow pace of talks with Russia, Trump recently authorized more arms sales to NATO allies that are intended for Ukraine.
Trump has tried giving Putin room to come to the negotiating table over several months. But more recently, he has publicly excoriated Putin, suggesting the Russian leader was simply playing him for time after repeated conversations with Witkoff.
Witkoff's latest visit to Moscow came as Trump has threatened secondary sanctions against Russia amid the lack of progress toward peace.
Russian news agencies said his meeting with Putin lasted about three hours, but there was little immediate clarity about how it went. Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser, called the meeting 'very useful and constructive.'
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Trump, in a post on social media, called it 'highly productive' and added, 'Great progress was made!'
But a few hours after the meeting's end, Trump announced that he would increase his tariffs on India to 50 percent, describing the move as a penalty for purchasing Russian oil. Trump also ordered his administration to determine whether other countries are importing Russian oil and recommend whether they should face similar tariffs.
Trump said Tuesday that, depending on the results of Witkoff's meeting, the United States could impose new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its fossil fuels.
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