Trump to Meet Putin as Early as Next Week

After speaking by phone to the American president, Zelensky said he believed Russia was “now more inclined to a ceasefire”.

“My special envoy, Steve Witkoff, just had a highly productive meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin,” he posted on Truth Social. “Great progress was made! Afterwards, I updated some of our European allies.”

“I don’t call it a breakthrough,” he said. “I mean, we’ve been working on this a long time.”

“It’s only been eight hours so let’s see what happens over the next sanctions. You’re going to see a lot more,” he said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox Business late on Wednesday that more had to be done to reach an agreement between the parties.

“Today was a good day, but we got a lot of work ahead,” he said. “There’s still many impediments to overcome, and we hope to do that over the next few days and hours.”

“The meeting with Russia and special envoy Witkoff went well,” said the official. “The Russians are eager to continue engaging with the United States. The secondary sanctions are still expected to be implemented on Friday.”

For his part, Zelensky sounded an optimistic note.

“It seems that Russia is now more inclined to a ceasefire, the pressure on them is working,” he said. “But the main thing is that they do not deceive us in detail, neither us nor the United States.”

Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, said in a statement: “As President Trump said earlier today on Truth Social, great progress was made during Special Envoy Witkoff’s meeting with President Putin.

“The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the President is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelensky. President Trump wants this brutal war to end.”

A top Russian presidential aide described the talks as “useful and constructive”.

“Russia had conveyed signals to the American side on the Ukrainian issue and received corresponding signals from Trump,” Yuri Ushakov told reporters after talks wrapped up.