PUTIN-TRUMP MEETING IN ‘COMING DAYS’

Thu 07 August 2025:

A Kremlin official announced that US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting in the near future. This follows Trump’s statement that he might soon meet both Putin and Ukrainian leaders to negotiate an end to the Ukraine conflict.

Trump’s ultimatum for Russia to agree to a ceasefire, or face tougher sanctions, is set to expire on Friday.

“At the suggestion of the American side, a deal was agreed in principle to hold a bilateral meeting at the highest level in the coming days,” Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow.

Saying that authorities from both countries have begun working towards the meeting, Ushakov added that the two sides also agreed, in principle, on the venue of the talks but that details would be given later.

Ushakov said “next week” has been considered a target date for the summit, but also that it is difficult to know how long preparations for the meeting will take.

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“But the option of holding the meeting during the next week was considered, and we are quite positive about this option,” he added.

Ushakov’s remarks followed Trump saying Wednesday that there is a “good chance” he will meet with his Russian counterpart “soon.”

Also Wednesday, US special envoy Steve Witkoff spoke with Putin in Moscow, just two days before hitting Trump’s 10-day deadline for Russia to reach a ceasefire deal with Ukraine, as of Friday, or face new sanctions.

Commenting on yesterday’s meeting, Ushakov said Witkoff mentioned the possibility of a trilateral meeting involving Putin, Trump, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but added the matter was not specifically discussed and that Moscow left the topic “without comment.”

“We propose, first of all, to focus on preparing a bilateral meeting with Trump and we consider it most important that this meeting be successful and productive,” he went on to say.

The summit between Putin and Trump would be the first face-to-face meeting between the serving Russian and US presidents since a June 2021 meeting in Geneva between Putin and then-US President Joe Biden.

Three rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul have failed to bring the war closer to an end, three-and-a-half years after Moscow launched its full-invasion.

Moscow’s military and political preconditions for peace remain unacceptable to Kyiv and to its Western partners.

Russian demands include Ukraine becoming a neutral state, dramatically reducing its military and abandoning its Nato aspirations.

It also wants Ukrainian military withdrawal from its four partly occupied regions in the south-east, and the demobilisation of its soldiers.

Russia also demands international recognition of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as the annexed Crimea.

Other conditions include a ban on Ukraine’s membership in any military alliances, a limit on the size of the Ukrainian army, Russian as an official language, and the lifting of international sanctions on Russia

The Kremlin has also repeatedly turned down Kyiv’s requests for a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.

Meanwhile, the US approved $200m (£150m) in additional military aid to Ukraine on Tuesday, including support for drone production.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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