President Trump may meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “next week,” according to a top Kremlin aide, a report that comes a day after the Kremlin head met with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow.
“Russia confirms Putin-Trump summit may happen next week and summit preparations are ongoing. This can be a historic meeting. Dialogue will prevail,” Putin’s envoy for investment and economic cooperation Kirill Dmitriev wrote in a Thursday post on the social platform X.
Another top Putin aide, Yuri Ushakov, echoed the possibility of the meeting with the two leaders next week, the first huddle by a U.S. president with the Russian leader since 2021.
“At the suggestion of the American side, an agreement was essentially reached to hold a bilateral meeting at the highest level in the coming days, that is, a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump,” Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, said Thursday.
Ushakov said Witkoff raised the possibility of a trilateral meeting between Putin, Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, but the Kremlin said the summit would just be between Trump and Putin.
Neither side has confirmed the date or location of the potential meeting, brought up as part of the Trump administration’s push to end the Russia-Ukraine war that has lasted more than three years.
“We have many friends willing to help us organise events of this kind. The President of the United Arab Emirates is one such friend,” the Kremlin quoted Putin saying Thursday. “I think we will make a decision eventually, and that country would be an appropriate place for a meeting.”
The White House said the meeting will only happen if Trump “feels” Putin is “committed” to ending the war..
“The president has obviously been frustrated. We see Vladimir Putin not willing to engage in proper diplomacy with the president. Good phone calls are one thing, but if they’re followed up with no action, that’s going to be a problem,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said during his Thursday morning appearance on NewsNation.
“The president is going to be holding Ukraine and Russia both accountable and making sure that they end this war once and for all,” he added.
Witkoff’s meeting with Russian officials in Moscow on Wednesday “went well,” according to a senior U.S. administration official..
“The Russians are eager to continue engaging with the United States. The secondary sanctions are still expected to be implemented on Friday,” the official said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Trump said Witkoff had a “highly productive” meeting with Putin.
“Great progress was made! Afterwards, I updated some of our European Allies. Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
During a call with Zelensky, Germany Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and other European leaders, Trump raised the idea of meeting with Putin in the coming weeks, a source familiar with the matter told The Hill.
Trump, who has been critical of Putin in recent weeks as Russia’s military has continued its attacks on various Ukrainian cities, penned an executive order Wednesday, after Witkoff’s meeting with Putin, upping the tariffs on India by 25 percent due to the Southeast Asian country’s purchases of Russian oil.
The import tax, which is set to kick in in three weeks, would bring India’s tariff total to 50 percent.
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