White House Suggests Trump-Putin Meeting Could Come Soon

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that there’s a “good chance” he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky soon to discuss a potential ceasefire agreement that could end Russia’s three-year war against Ukraine. “We had some very good talks with President Putin today and there’s a very good chance that we could be ending the round—the end of that road,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday evening. “There’s a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon.” He did not specify where the meeting would take place, and Russia and Ukraine have not commented publicly on the potential meeting. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to TIME that Russia first suggested the meeting, and that Trump is “open” to the idea of meeting both Putin and Zelensky. The comments about a possible summit came just days before Trump’s Friday deadline for Russia to reach a ceasefire deal with Ukraine or face “very severe” sanctions designed to cripple its oil trade. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow for about three hours, which Trump described as “highly productive” and wrote in a post on Truth Social that “great progress was made.” Following that meeting, Trump held a call with European leaders and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to provide an update. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was more guarded about the potential meeting between Trump and the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, telling Fox Business on Wednesday evening that it “remains to be seen” if the meetings take place next week. “I think it will depend a lot on how much progress we can make,” he said, adding that Wednesday’s meeting between Witkoff and Putin gave the Trump Administration a sense of what conditions the Russians would require in order to end the war. “I don’t think you can have a leaders-level meeting if you’re not close enough, because then nothing’s going to come of that meeting. We want to get it close enough and then we want to give the President the opportunity to come in and close it.” Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin over the past month, calling his continued attacks on Ukrainian cities “disgusting” and “a disgrace.” More than 6,700 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the first half of this year, according to the United Nations.  In response, Trump last week demanded that Putin strike a ceasefire deal with Ukraine within 10 days or it could face economic repercussions, including new sanctions on the countries that do business with Russia and additional sanctions on Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet”—a network of obscure oil tankers that it has used to circumvent a price cap on seaborne oil. That deadline expires on Friday. Trump on Wednesday took the first step towards punishing Russia by signing an executive order that imposes an additional 25% tariff on goods from India because it continues to buy oil from Russia. The additional tariff on India is set to take effect in 21 days, bringing the total duties imposed on Indian products up to 50%. Trump suggested that more countries could face secondary tariffs for buying oil in Russia. China, for example, is the largest importer of Russian oil, with $62.5 billion worth of purchases last year, followed by India at $52.7 billion. Zelensky appeared to suggest on Wednesday that the conflict could be nearing a peace agreement. “It seems that Russia is now more committed to a cease-fire. The pressure on them is working,” he said in an evening address to the nation. “But the main thing is that they do not deceive us or the United States in the details.” Trump has met in-person with Zelensky at least three times since returning to office, including a Feb. 28 meeting where he lashed out at the Ukrainian president and accused him of prolonging Russia’s invasion. The two leaders met again on April 26 on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral and in The Hague on June 25. Meanwhile, Trump has not met with Putin during his presidency. If it takes place, it would mark the first in-person summit between an American and Russian president in more than four years. Such a meeting could be seen as a victory for Putin, who has been largely isolated by European leaders and NATO countries who refuse to deal with him.