Preparations are underway for an upcoming meeting between Putin and Zelenskyj, according to the US President Donald Trump. According to Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz, it will take place within two weeks.
Russia has not confirmed the matter, however. On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says such a meeting requires extensive preparations.
All contacts involving leaders must be prepared very carefully, he says according to the state-owned Rossija 24.
Lavrov emphasizes at the same time that all peace agreements must be made with respect for "Russia's security interests" and for Russian and Russian-speaking people in Ukraine. He also claims that Trump understands Russia better now - including that it is "necessary to eradicate the primary causes" behind the war to reach a peace solution.
If France's President Emmanuel Macron, who was one of the European leaders who participated in Monday's Ukraine meetings at the White House, gets to decide, the plausible summit will be held in Switzerland.
It will be arranged by a neutral country, perhaps Switzerland – I am pushing for Geneva – or another country, says Macron in an interview with the French news channel LCI.
Switzerland has signed the Rome Statute, the document that forms the basis for the International Criminal Court's (ICC) work. Thus, the country is bound to arrest Putin, wanted for war crimes by the ICC, if he sets foot on Swiss soil.
On Tuesday, however, the country's Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis says Putin would receive "immunity" if he agreed to a peace meeting in Switzerland, writes the news agency AFP.
