White House Sets Condition For Putin To Meet Trump

A White House official told The New York Post on Thursday that for President Donald Trump to agree to a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader must also agree to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russia said earlier on Thursday that the United States had agreed “in principle” to a one-on-one meeting between Trump and Putin, with a location for the meeting being secured. The White House rejected Russia’s assertion, however, saying that no location had been decided upon and that Trump had not yet agreed to meet with the Russian president. The White House added that Putin must agree to sit face-to-face with Zelensky for any meeting with Trump to take place. ABC News also reported on the White House’s stipulation.

The Kremlin said earlier on Thursday that a “meeting between Putin and Trump [will take place] in the coming days,” adding that “work on the summit has now begun.”

“The venue of the meeting between the presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, has been agreed, and the Kremlin will inform about it later,” Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said.

The statement from Russia came one day after Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin for around three hours, discussing the war with Ukraine and Russia’s relationship with the United States. After Witkoff briefed Trump on the meeting, the president reportedly told Zelensky and European leaders in a phone call that he plans to meet with Putin next week. Trump said that he only wanted to meet with Putin and Zelensky — with no European counterparts in the room, The New York Times reported.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged on Wednesday afternoon that a Trump-Putin summit in the “near future” is possible, but added that “a lot has to happen before that can occur.”

“Today was a good day, but we got a lot of work ahead. There are still many impediments to overcome,” Rubio said.

Since the war began in February 2022, Putin has rebuffed any attempts to meet with Zelensky, claiming that he is an illegitimate leader after he suspended elections under martial law. Trump has been pushing Putin to get a peace deal done with Ukraine, giving Moscow until Friday to come to an agreement before the United States imposes secondary tariffs on Russia, a move that could affect Russia’s war chest by punishing countries that continue to send cash to the Russian regime in exchange for oil.