WASHINGTON/MOSCOW. U.S. President Donald Trump could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin as early as next week, a White House official said Wednesday, as Washington prepares to impose secondary sanctions, potentially including measures against China, to pressure Moscow into ending the war in Ukraine.
If confirmed, the meeting would be the first between a sitting U.S. and Russian president since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021, about eight months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The New York Times reported that Trump told European leaders in a call on Wednesday that he planned to meet with Putin, then follow up with a trilateral meeting involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Putin and Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019.
“There’s a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon,” Trump told reporters. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Moscow had expressed its desire to meet with Trump, who is open to holding talks with both Putin and Zelenskiy.
The development follows a meeting in Moscow between Putin and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, which Trump described on Truth Social as having made “great progress,” though he later stopped short of calling it a breakthrough. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the talks were “useful and constructive.”
The diplomatic moves come two days before a deadline set by Trump for Russia to agree to a peace deal or face new sanctions. Trump has voiced frustration over the lack of progress and has threatened heavy tariffs on countries purchasing Russian exports, including oil. He also signaled possible tariffs on China, similar to the 25 percent duties imposed on India over its purchases of Russian oil.
A White House official said that despite Moscow’s willingness to continue dialogue, secondary sanctions against countries doing business with Russia remain set for implementation on Friday.
Zelenskiy said he believed international pressure was working on Russia, making it more inclined toward a ceasefire. “The pressure on them works. But the main thing is that they do not deceive us in the details – neither us nor the U.S.,” he said in his nightly address.
Edgardo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
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