BREAKING! Trump gives conditions to meet with Putin
US president, Donald Trump says he will agree to meet with Putin if only the Russian dictator also meets with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine.
The White House has not confirmed a bilateral meeting, but is discussing a possible trilateral meeting.
US President Donald Trump says he will meet with Vladimir Putin only if the Russian dictator also meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Famous Reporters reports with reference to the New York Post.
“Putin must meet with Zelenskyy for the meeting to happen,” a White House official told the New York Post. “The meeting place has not yet been determined.”
On Thursday, Moscow stated that it had “in principle” agreed with Washington to hold a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Trump – hours after the latter said he was still unsure if “the Kremlin was pushing him.”
“A principled agreement has been reached to hold a bilateral summit in the coming days, that is, a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump,” those were the words of Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov, claiming that this was done “at the suggestion of the American side.”
In fact, the White House did not confirm a bilateral meeting – and did not mention it during a press conference on Wednesday, where it spoke about a possible trilateral meeting with the presidents of the United States, Russia, and Ukraine.
However, Trump was not overly optimistic about the prospect of a trilateral meeting at the briefing, noting that he had “previously been disappointed” by Moscow’s promises of peace.
In recent weeks, his frustration has grown due to Putin’s private promises of peace made directly to Trump, just before launching even more brutal air attacks on Ukrainian civilians.
“He speaks well, and then bombs everyone,” Trump lamented.
Holding a bilateral meeting before a trilateral meeting carries the risk that Putin will continue to “push” Trump with meaningless negotiations – something the US president has often complained about.
On Wednesday, Trump said he would find out “within a few weeks, maybe less” if Putin was serious about ending the war.
The publication notes that a trilateral meeting would be a big step towards ending the war in Ukraine. No other world leader, including former President Joe Biden, has been able to bring the two warring parties into one room since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
However, the Kremlin is still resisting the idea of Trump meeting with Zelenskyy.
“First of all, we propose to focus on preparing a bilateral meeting with Trump and consider it paramount that this meeting be successful and effective,” Ushakov said.
Source: UNN
