President Donald Trump on Thursday said Russia’s Vladimir Putin doesn’t have to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in order for him and Putin to meet.
“No, he doesn’t,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“They would like to meet with me and I’ll do whatever I can to stop the killing,” the president continued.
Earlier Thursday, when pushing back on Kremlin claims that a Trump-Putin summit had been set, a White House official had said Putin would also have to meet with Zelenskyy for the meeting to take place — something the Kremlin has not been willing to commit to so far.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt then followed up to say Trump was “open” to meeting with Putin, though the preference was still for a trilateral meeting.
“As President Trump said yesterday, the Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the President is open to this meeting,” Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News.
“President Trump would like to meet with both President Putin and President Zelensky because he wants this brutal war to end. The White House is working through the details of these potential meetings and details will be provided at the appropriate time,” Leavitt added.
President Trump was also asked in the Oval Office if his Friday deadline for Putin to agree to a ceasefire or face sanction still stands.
“It’s gonna be up to him,” Trump said. “We’re going to see what he has to say. It’s gonna be up to him. Very disappointed.”
Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov said earlier Thursday that a “meeting between Putin and Trump (will take place) in the coming days,” adding that “work on the summit has now begun,” the Kremlin said.
Ushakov said that White House special envoy Steve Witkoff had raised the idea of a trilateral meeting between Putin, Trump and Zelenskyy but that the upcoming meeting would only be between Trump and Putin, the Kremlin said.
“The venue of the meeting between the presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, has been agreed, and the Kremlin will inform about it later,” Ushakov said on Thursday.
Though no specific location was disclosed, Ushakov suggested that Russia was “many friends who are ready to help us organize such events.”
“One of them is the President of the United Arab Emirates. I think we will decide, but it would be one of the most suitable, quite suitable places,” Ushakov said.
Zelenskyy said Thursday that Ukraine and Europe should be part of talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which began in February 2022 when Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine.
“The war is happening in Europe, and Ukraine is an integral part of Europe — we are already in negotiations on EU accession,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. “Therefore, Europe must be a participant in the relevant processes.”
Zelenskyy said security officials from Ukraine, Europe and the U.S. would be meeting Thursday “to align our joint views.”
“Yesterday, various potential formats for leader-level meetings to bring peace were also discussed — two bilateral and one trilateral,” he added. “Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side.”
A White House official said on Wednesday a bilateral meeting between Trump and Putin could happen as soon as next week.
Trump himself was less committal when asked about the potential for a meeting between him and Putin, saying he’s been “disappointed before” but that there was “very good prospect” of a summit between Putin and Zelenskyy.