Breaking: Kremlin Announces Putin and Trump Meeting as Early as Next Week

The Kremlin stated on Thursday that Russian leader Putin will hold talks with U.S. President Trump as early as next week.

This is the first time since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that both sides have announced they will hold face-to-face talks. The day before, Putin met with Trump's envoy Whitcoff in Moscow, and both parties described the meeting as productive.

According to Russian media reports, Putin's aide Yury Ushakov told reporters:

"At the suggestion of the US side, an agreement has been reached in principle to hold a high-level bilateral meeting in the coming days between President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump."

Ushakov said,The two leaders aim to meet next week.However, he added, "It's hard to say how many days the preparation will take," and stated,The location of the meeting has been agreed upon and will be announced later.

Previously, White House officials also stated that Trump could meet with Putin as early as next week, as the United States continues to prepare for secondary sanctions to put pressure on Moscow and force it to end the conflict.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated, "Russia has expressed a desire to meet with President Trump, and the President is also willing to meet with President Putin and President Zelensky."

It is noteworthy that the Kremlin announced that the upcoming Russia-US bilateral meeting will not include Ukraine.Putin had previously refused to meet with Zelensky.

Ushakov said, "Vitebskov mentioned the idea of a trilateral meeting between Putin, Trump, and Zelensky, but Moscow did not comment.”

Andriy Yermak, the main aide to Zelensky, wrote that Ukraine is "preparing important security-related communications with our partners."

Earlier, Zelensky stated that he believes the pressure on Russia has already had an effect, and that Moscow is now more "inclined" toward a ceasefire.Zelensky said,"Putting pressure on them is effective. But the most important thing is that they do not deceive us in the details—whether it is us or the United States."