US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to meet in the \u201ccoming days\u201d, a Kremlin aide has said.<\/p>\n
It follows Trump saying there was a \u201cgood chance\u201d he could meet his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts together in person \u201cvery soon\u201d to discussending the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s deadline for Russia to agree a ceasefire in Ukraine or face more sweeping sanctions is due to expire on Friday.<\/p>\n
A possible meeting between Trump and Putin would follow US envoy Steve Witkoff holding talks with the Russian president on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Witkoff has travelled to Moscow four times previously, visits followed by optimism from Trump but ultimately no major breakthrough in peace talks.<\/p>\n
Trump was also asked at a White House briefing on Wednesday night whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putinhad agreed to a three-way summit, and he said there was a \u201cvery good prospect\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov noted that the idea of a three-way summit was mentioned at talks in Moscow on Wednesday, but was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying the option was left by Russia \u201cwithout comment\u201d.<\/p>\n
Zelensky indicated his support for a summit, saying on X: \u201cWe in Ukraine have repeatedly said that finding real solutions can be truly effective at the level of leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added it was \u201cnecessary to determine the timing and the range of issues to be addressed\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ushakov said a location for a meeting between Trump and Putin had been agreed, with further details to be announced later.<\/p>\n
The official, who advises Putin on foreign affairs, said all parties have begun working on the details.<\/p>\n
Last month, Trump admitted to the BBC that after all four of Witkoff\u2019s previous visits, Putin had disappointed him after talks had initially led to optimism.<\/p>\n
The US President is now striking a more cautious tone, telling reporters on Wednesday: \u201cI don\u2019t call it a breakthrough\u2026we have been working at this for a long time. There are thousands of young people dying\u2026 I\u2019m here to get the thing over with.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Kremlin released a vague statement about Witkoff\u2019s visit, calling the discussions \u201cconstructive\u201d and noting that both sides had exchanged \u201csignals\u201d.<\/p>\n
Zelensky meanwhile said he had spoken to Trump about Witkoff\u2019s visit, with European leaders also on the call.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian president has been warning that Russia would only make serious moves towards peace if it began to run out of money.<\/p>\n
Expectations are muted for a settlement by Friday \u2013 when Trump\u2019s deadline expires \u2013 and Russia has continued its large-scale air attacks on Ukraine despite the US threat of sanctions.<\/p>\n
As pressure builds, Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on Indian imports over its continued purchase of Russian oil.<\/p>\n
Before taking office in January, Trump said he would be able to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in a day. The conflict has raged on and his rhetoric towards Moscow has since hardened.<\/p>\n
Three rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have failed to bring the war closer to an end, three-and-a-half years after Moscow launched its full-invasion.<\/p>\n
Moscow\u2019s military and political preconditions for peace remain unacceptable to Kyiv and to its Western partners. The Kremlin has also repeatedly turned down Kyiv\u2019s requests for a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the US approved $200m (\u00a3150m) in additional military aid to Ukraine on Tuesday, including support for drone production.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to meet in the \u201ccoming days\u201d, a Kremlin aide has said. It follows Trump saying there was a \u201cgood chance\u201d he could meet his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts together in person \u201cvery soon\u201d to discussending the war in Ukraine. Trump\u2019s deadline for Russia to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}