The summit is to take place at the suggestion of the USA and planning for it is underway, according to, among others, the regime-loyal Russian news agency Interfax, citing Putin's adviser Yuri Ushakov.
Together with our American colleagues, we have in principle agreed on a location and we will inform about it later. We have started working on specific issues, says Ushakov according to Bloomberg and Interfax.
Unclear meeting place
The goal is said to be to hold the meeting next week. A few hours after Ushakov's comments, Putin himself emerged from a meeting with the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, and then said that the Arab country would be a good place for the summit with Trump.
The Russian President added, according to media on the spot in Moscow, that he "in general" does not refuse to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky - but that the circumstances are not yet right for such a meeting.
The White House has previously said that Putin will meet Zelensky in a meeting where Trump will also participate, but according to new information, Trump is "open" to a meeting with only Putin, reports ABC News. The White House still prefers a three-party meeting, says White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Lasting peace
By then, Ukraine's president had already urged Trump to talks with Putin that would lead to "true and lasting" peace.
But in a post on X, Zelensky also signals cautious criticism of the fact that the USA wants to meet Russia one on one. "The war is going on in Europe, and Ukraine is part of Europe", writes Zelensky. "Therefore, Europe must participate in relevant processes".
In the statement, made after a phone call with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Zelensky adds that Ukraine is happy to participate in meetings, "and expects the same brave attitude from the Russian side" - an obvious jab at Putin's hesitation.
Trump described it on Wednesday as wanting to follow up a personal meeting with Putin with a new meeting where all three are present, reports American media citing anonymous sources.
Trump's statement came after talks in Moscow between Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin. Trump said after the meeting that "great progress" had been made and that there are good chances for a meeting between him and the Russian President "very soon".
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have not met since the American's last term. But then they spoke face to face on five occasions:
July 7, 2017: Summit for the G20 organization, Hamburg, Germany
November 10, 2017: Pacific Summit within the Apec cooperation, Da Nang, Vietnam
July 16, 2018: Helsinki, Finland - the only separate summit so far, with only Trump and Putin
December 1, 2018: G20 summit, Buenos Aires, Argentina
June 28, 2019: G20 summit, Osaka, Japan
