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Trump to meet Putin in the coming days? What Kremlin said
The two sides are reportedly working on setting a Putin-Trump meet up, reports said, adding that a venue for the meeting has been agreed on.
A meeting of US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the coming days has been agreed on, Kremlin said on Thursday, after which the Russia premier named the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a potential location for the meeting.
"We have many friends who are willing to help us organise such events. One of our friends is the president of the United Arab Emirates," AFP news agency quoted Putin as saying, standing next to UAE leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Putin added, “it (the UAE) would be one of the quite suitable places”.
Reports earlier in the day cited Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov as saying that the two sides are working on setting it up, adding that a venue for the meeting has been agreed on and will be announced later.
The would be the first meeting between Putin and Trump since the latter returned to the White House this year for his second term as US President.
The Kremlin, however, also said on Thursday it had not responded to a trilateral meeting which would involve Putin, Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a meet that US President's special envoy Steve Witkoff had proposed during a visit to Moscow.
"This option was simply mentioned by the American representative (Steve Witkoff) during the meeting in the Kremlin," AFP news agency quoted Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov as saying, citing the state TASS news agency.
"But this option was not specifically discussed. The Russian side left this option completely without comment," Ushakov added.
The meetings being set up are part of the efforts to make Russia and Ukraine reach a ceasefire and end the over three-year-old war.
Since the start of the full-scale war in February 2022, Russia’s offensive on the urban areas behind the front line has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations.
On the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line snaking from northeast to southeast Ukraine, where tens of thousands of troops on both sides have died, Russia’s bigger army is slowly capturing more land.
The announcement of a possible meeting between Putin and Trump comes a day after US envoy Steve Witkoff met the Russian President in Moscow.
Witkoff proposed a trilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but Russia did not respond to that proposal, Ushakov said.
"The Russian side left this option completely without comment," he added.
