Trump to meet Putin next week? White House signals

The White House on Wednesday confirmed that Russia had requested a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Donald Trump, and that Trump was open to the proposal.

This followed a

report by news agency AP, which cited a White House official saying that a bilateral meeting between Trump and Putin could take place as early as next week.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, “The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the president is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelensky.”

According to a report from AFP, citing a senior Ukrainian source, Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the possibility during

a phone call that also included Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, as well as the leaders of Britain, Germany, and Finland.

The call came shortly after US envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with President Putin in Moscow earlier the same day.

However, Trump was more cautious when questioned by reporters at an Oval Office event about the potential meetings with Putin and Zelenskyy.

“Well, look, I don’t want to say, I’ve been disappointed before with this one,” he said.

Still, he expressed optimism about a

possible summit between Putin and Zelenskyy.

“Well, there’s a, a very good prospect that they will,” Trump said. “And we haven’t determined where, but we had some very good talks with President Putin today. And there’s a very good chance that we could be ending the, ending the round, ending the end of that road. That road was long and continues to be long. But there’s a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon.”