WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump could meet Vladimir Putin as soon as next week, a White House official said on Wednesday (Aug 6), as the US maintained plans to impose secondary sanctions on Friday in an effort to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
Such a face-to-face meeting would be the first between a sitting US and Russian president since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021, some eight months before Russia launched the biggest attack on a European nation since World War II by invading Ukraine.
Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have not met since December 2019 and make no secret of their contempt for each other.
The New York Times reported that Trump told European leaders during a call on Wednesday that he intends to meet with Putin and then follow up with a trilateral involving the Russian leader and Zelenskyy.
“The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the President is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelenskyy,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, responding to the report.
A Trump-Putin meeting could take place as soon as next week, the White House official said.
A German government spokesperson said Trump provided information about the status of the talks with Russia during a call with the German chancellor and other European heads of government.
The details emerged following a meeting on Wednesday between Putin and US special envoy Steve Witkoff that Trump said had achieved “great progress”.
It comes two days before a deadline set by Trump for Russia to agree to peace in Ukraine or face new sanctions.
Trump has been increasingly frustrated with Putin over the lack of progress towards peace and has threatened to impose heavy tariffs on countries that buy Russian exports, including oil.
The White House official said that while the meeting had gone well and Moscow was eager to continue engaging with the United States, secondary sanctions that Trump has threatened against countries doing business with Russia were still expected to be implemented on Friday. No details were provided.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox Business’ “Kudlow” later on Wednesday that more had to be done to reach an agreement between the parties.
“Today was a good day, but we got a lot of work ahead,” he said. “There’s still many impediments to overcome, and we hope to do that over the next few days and hours.”
A Kremlin aide earlier said Witkoff held “useful and constructive” talks with Putin on Wednesday. The two met for around three hours on a last-minute mission to seek a breakthrough in the 3.5-year war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said the two sides had exchanged “signals” on the Ukraine issue and discussed the possibility of developing strategic cooperation between Moscow and Washington, but declined to give more details until Witkoff had reported back to Trump.
Zelenskyy said he believed pressure had worked on Russia and Moscow was now more amenable to a ceasefire.
“It seems that Russia is now more inclined to a ceasefire. The pressure on them works. But the main thing is that they do not deceive us in the details – neither us nor the US,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.
Writing separately on the X social media platform, Zelenskyy said he had discussed Witkoff’s visit to Russia with Trump, adding that he had reiterated Ukraine’s support for a just peace and its continued determination to defend itself.
“Ukraine will definitely defend its independence. We all need a lasting and reliable peace. Russia must end the war that it itself started,” Zelenskyy said, adding that European leaders had joined the call with Trump.
Trump on Truth Social said he had updated some of Washington’s European allies following Witkoff’s meeting.
