President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are reportedly close to agreeing to a face-to-face meeting, the first time since President Trump returned to office for his second term.
According to a translation from the aide to the Russian president, Yuri Ushakov, “an agreement was agreed upon in principle” for the two leaders to hold a meeting in the coming days to discuss the ongoing conflict in Eastern Europe, per Fox News.
Ushakov said, at least for now, the meeting would likely not include representation from Ukraine.
“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,” said Ushakov.
The potential sitdown comes amid President Trump’s ongoing efforts to broker a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv. Despite the Pentagon recently ordering the delivery of additional defensive weapons to Ukraine, as reported in The Dallas Express, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnel said at the time that the administration continues to “work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops.”
More recently, in a Truth Social post on Wednesday, President Trump stated that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff “had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
“Great progress was made! 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!” wrote President Trump.
Soon after, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated the administration’s position.
“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,” per Fox News.