According to the sources, Trump sees a bilateral meeting between Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyj as the next step on the way to getting an end to Russia's invasion war. A meeting they have to organize on their own.
Trump is said to be willing to host a trilateral meeting, but only after the two presidents have met in private.
The American President has met both Putin and Zelenskyj at separate meetings in recent days. According to Zelenskyj, a meeting with Putin is possible – but only after Ukraine has received concrete security guarantees.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in turn on Thursday that Putin is open to a meeting only when "all issues have been processed" and that any kind of presence of European forces in Ukraine would be "completely unacceptable".
In his evening speech, Zelenskyj accused Russia of avoiding the "necessity" of such a meeting, despite the US-led efforts.
– The current signals from Russia are, honestly, ambiguous. They are trying to avoid the need to meet. They do not want to end this war, he said.
