Administration officials say Trump plans to step back from directly brokering talks and leave Russia and Ukraine to arrange an initial meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump envisions a bilateral Putin-Zelenskyy meeting first and intends to host a trilateral summit with both leaders only after that bilateral occurs. Trump told advisers he will not participate in the initial meeting and said in an interview he preferred the leaders meet without him initially. He has acknowledged that ending the war has been more difficult than he expected, sought a quick peace after a missed deadline, and reported initiating steps toward a bilateral meeting. The White House describes a wait-and-see approach and currently lacks a shortlist of potential meeting locations.
Donald Trump intends to leave Russia and Ukraine to organize a meeting between their leaders without directly playing a role for now, according to administration officials familiar with the situation, taking a step back from the negotiations to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The next stage in Trump's eyes to end the war in Ukraine remains a bilateral meeting between Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, the officials said.
He has since sought a quick peace agreement after his deadline for Russia to end the war expired this month and said after his meetings with Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House on Monday that he had initiated steps for a bilateral meeting. A senior administration official characterized the situation as Trump taking a wait-and-see approach to whether a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting could be scheduled.
Collection
[
|
...
]