President Trump lauded the “progress” made during special envoy Steve Witkoff’s visit to the Kremlin.
CNN reported on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump has instructed his team to expedite the arrangement of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to CNN, Putin proposed a direct meeting with Trump during discussions earlier in the day with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, citing information from two anonymous White House sources.
Reportedly, US presidential aides immediately started planning for a possible summit. CNN noted that while these types of high-level meetings typically require extensive preparation, “Trump was urging his team to move fast.” The location is still unconfirmed, but discussions could begin as early as next week, the outlet stated.
Earlier in the day, Trump expressed approval of the Putin-Witkoff talks, indicating “a very good prospect” for a meeting between Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky.
He told reporters in the Oval Office that “There is a good chance there could be a meeting very soon.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested on Wednesday that a trilateral summit involving Trump, Putin, and Zelensky could occur, contingent on the progress of peace talks regarding the Ukraine conflict.
The New York Times also reported the US president’s intention to soon meet with his Russian counterpart. Citing anonymous sources, the NYT wrote on Wednesday that Trump revealed the plan in a recent phone call with European leaders, where he outlined plans for a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelensky following a one-on-one meeting with the Russian leader.
Moscow has not yet confirmed any meeting plans. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that normalizing US-Russia relations is necessary before a summit can take place. He told TASS on Wednesday that relations between Washington and Moscow had declined to an “unprecedented level” under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, resulting in numerous points of disagreement.
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