US President Donald Trump said Thursday he would meet with Vladimir Putin for upcoming talks on the Ukraine war even if the Russian leader had not sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The statement, which contradicted earlier reports that a Putin-Zelensky meeting was a prerequisite for the summit, came after Trump gave Moscow until Friday to reach a ceasefire or face fresh sanctions.

But asked by reporters in the Oval Office if that deadline still held, Trump did not answer clearly.

“It’s going to be up to (Putin),” Trump said. “We’re going to see what he has to say.”

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has been pressuring Moscow to end Russia’s military assault on Ukraine.

The Kremlin said Thursday that Putin was set to attend a summit with Trump in the “coming days,” but the Russian leader essentially ruled out including Zelensky.

Zelensky meanwhile insisted that he had to be involved in any talks.

When Trump was asked if Putin was required to meet Zelensky before a summit, the US president said simply: “No, he doesn’t.”

Putin has named the United Arab Emirates as a potential location for the summit, but this was not confirmed by Washington.

Next week? 

The summit would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.

Three rounds of direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul have failed to yield any progress towards a ceasefire. The two sides remain far apart on the conditions they have set to end the more than three-year-long conflict.

Trump and Putin last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump’s first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since January.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said that “next week has been set as a target date,” adding that both sides have agreed the venue “in principle,” without naming it.

However, Washington later denied that a venue or date had been set.

“No location has been determined,” a White House official said, while agreeing that the meeting “could occur as early as next week.”

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its military offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian bombardments have forced millions of people to flee their homes and have destroyed swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.

Putin has resisted multiple calls from the United States, Europe and Kyiv for a ceasefire.

At talks in Istanbul, Russian negotiators outlined hardline territorial demands for halting its advance — calling for Kyiv to withdraw from some territory it still controls and to renounce Western military support.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged Trump to “finally get tough on the Kremlin” and use his leverage to end the war.

“Face-to-face dialogue is important, but Putin cannot be allowed yet another opportunity to delay or water down President Trump’s promise of harsh sanctions taking effect tomorrow,” she said in a statement late Thursday.

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 ‘Only fair’ Ukraine involved 

Reports of the possible summit came after US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin in Moscow on Wednesday.

Witkoff proposed a trilateral meeting with Zelensky, but Putin appeared to rule out direct talks with the Ukrainian leader.

“Certain conditions must be created for this,” Putin told reporters. “Unfortunately, we are still far from creating such conditions.”

The former KGB agent, who has ruled Russia for over 25 years, said in June that he was ready to meet Zelensky, but only during a “final phase” of negotiations on ending the conflict.

In his regular evening address on Thursday, Zelensky said “it is only fair that Ukraine should be a participant in the negotiations.”

The Ukrainian leader spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as he called for the continent to be included in any potential peace talks.

“Ukraine is an integral part of Europe — we are already in negotiations on EU accession. Therefore, Europe must be a participant in the relevant processes,” Zelensky said on social media.

AFP