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President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin appear to be on track to soon have their first meeting since Trump took office for his second term – as long as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is included.
Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said Thursday that “at the suggestion of the American side, an agreement was agreed upon in principle to hold a bilateral meeting at the highest level in the coming days, that is, a meeting of Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.”
A senior White House official indicated to Fox News’ Peter Doocy that if the two leaders are going to meet, it would be one of two meetings: a bilateral meeting between Trump and Putin followed by a trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Officials insisted nothing has been agreed upon, but seemed optimistic about the prospect of this happening sometime next week.
Russia confirmed that including Zelenskyy has been discussed.
TRUMP OPEN TO MEET PUTIN FACE-TO-FACE NEXT WEEK FOLLOWED BY THREE-WAY TALKS WITH UKRAINE’S ZELENSKYY
U.S. President Donald Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on the first day of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan on June 28, 2019 (Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
“As for the option of a trilateral meeting, which for some reason was discussed yesterday in Washington, this option was simply mentioned by the American representative during the meeting in the Kremlin. But this option was not specifically discussed. The Russian side left this option completely, without comment,” Ushakov noted. “We propose first of all to focus on preparing a bilateral meeting with D. Trump and we believe that the main thing is for this meeting to be successful and productive.”
The potential meeting would come as Trump has been trying to help broker an end to the years-long Russia-Ukraine war.
TRUMP HAILS ‘HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE’ TALKS WITH PUTIN DESPITE NO CEASEFIRE, ‘SECONDARY TARIFFS’ STILL ON
“My Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Great progress was made!” Trump declared in a Wednesday post on Truth Social.
“Afterwards, I updated some of our European Allies. Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt noted, “As President Trump said earlier today on TRUTH Social, great progress was made during Special Envoy Witkoff’s meeting with President Putin. The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the President is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelensky. President Trump wants this brutal war to end.”
Fox News Channel’s Peter Doocy contributed to this report