WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump said Thursday he would meet with Vladimir Putin for upcoming talks on the Ukraine war even if the Russian leader had not sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The statement, which contradicted earlier reports that a Putin-Zelensky meeting was a prerequisite for the summit, came after Trump gave Moscow until Friday to reach a ceasefire or face fresh sanctions.
But asked by reporters in the Oval Office if that deadline still held, Trump did not answer clearly.
“It’s going to be up to (Putin),” Trump said. “We’re going to see what he has to say.”
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has been pressuring Moscow to end Russia’s military assault on Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Thursday that Putin was set to attend a summit with Trump in the “coming days,” but the Russian leader essentially ruled out including Zelensky.
Zelensky, meanwhile, insisted that he had to be involved in any talks.
When Trump was asked if Putin was required to meet Zelensky before a summit, the US president said simply: “No, he doesn’t.”
Putin has named the United Arab Emirates as a potential location for the summit, but this was not confirmed by Washington.
The summit would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.
Three rounds of direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul have failed to yield any progress towards a ceasefire. The two sides remain far apart on the conditions they have set to end the more than three-year-long conflict.