Zelensky-Trump meeting live: Ukraine leader to meet Putin ‘within two weeks’ after White House talks – UK Times

Donald Trump broke away from his talks with Volodymyr Zelensky, the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland plus the top representatives of Nato and the EU, to call Vladimir Putin during their multilateral summit last evening.

The Financial Times reported that Ukraine had offered Trump a European funded $100bn arms deal as part of a pact. Trump has every incentive to hold Putin’s feet to a fire and demand he get out of Ukraine – or burn.

The US could join its allies in Ukraine to defend Europe, it could back its legal demands for territorial integrity, its accession to Nato and celebrate that it is a democracy not a dictatorship. It could also make money by selling weapons and exploiting Ukraine’s vast mineral deposits.

But Trump’s call to Moscow mid-session is bad news, says Sam Kiley, world affairs editor:

Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky during a phone call with Donald Trump earlier today, secretary of state Marco Rubio said.

Speaking to Fox News’s Jesse Watters on being in the room during the call between Trump and Putin, Rubio said: “ I was, I was. And in that conversation, what came from it is that the President suggested that Zelensky and Putin meet, so we’re working on that now to try to set that up for them to meet somewhere, which, again, would be unprecedented.”

“And then if that goes well, hopefully the next meeting will be a meeting between Presidents Putin, Trump, and Zelensky, where we hope to finalise a deal. We’re not there yet, but that’s what we’re aiming towards and that’s one of the things that was discussed today, is how to get to that point,” the US secretary of state said.

He added: “But just the fact that Putin is saying, sure, I’ll meet with Zelensky – that’s a big deal. I mean, I’m not saying they’re going to leave that room best friends. I’m not saying they’re going to leave that room with a peace deal. But I think the fact that people are now talking to each other, this wasn’t happening for three and a half years. This was a stalemated war of death and destruction.”

Donald Trump has said a meeting between Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian president Vladimir Putin could take place within two weeks, German chancellor Friedrich Merz said after talks at the White House.

The US president has taken steps to arrange a meeting between the two as he hosted key European leaders at the White House.

“At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky. After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The direct meeting between Zelensky and Putin was also confirmed by French president Emmanuel Macron who told reporters that the participants of Monday’s talks are willing to set up a bilateral meeting between the two “in the coming days” and the trilateral meeting including Trump “by two to three weeks.”

Zelensky said the meeting with Putin should be held “without any conditions”, adding that if he starts to set conditions for the meeting, regarding a potential ceasefire or other matters, then Russia will want to set conditions, too, potentially jeopardising those talks.

“That’s why I believe that we must meet without any conditions,” he told reporters.