Trump-Putin summit preparations are underway, Russia says

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and U.S. President Donald Trump give a joint news conference at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Preparations are underway for a face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Saturday. It marked a clear departure from Western efforts to isolate Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

Speaking to Russian state media, Sergei Ryabkov said a possible Putin-Trump summit could involve broad talks on global issues, not just the war in Ukraine.

“The question is about starting to move toward normalizing relations between our countries, finding ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, of which there are many, Ukraine among them,” he said.

But he said efforts to organize such a meeting are at an early stage, and that making it happen will require “the most intensive preparatory work.”

Ryabkov added that U.S. and Russian envoys could meet within the next two weeks to pave the way for further talks among senior officials.

Russian and U.S. representatives meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday agreed to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, an extraordinary about-face in U.S. foreign policy under Trump. Senior U.S. officials have suggested Ukraine will have to give up its goals of joining NATO and retaining the 20% of its territory seized by Russia.

After the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told The Associated Press the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies; to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks; and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation.

He stressed, however, that the talks, which were attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and other senior Russian and U.S. official, marked the beginning of a conversation, and more work needs to be done. Lavrov, for his part, hailed the meeting as “very useful.”

No Ukrainian officials were present at the Saudi meeting, which came as their beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops, nearly three years after Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its smaller neighbor.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not accept any outcome from the talks since Kyiv didn’t take part, and he postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia scheduled for last Wednesday. European allies have also expressed concerns that they are being sidelined.

Trump appears to soften criticism of Kyiv

Trump on Friday appeared to walk back his earlier comments that falsely blamed Kyiv for starting the war, but insisted that Zelenskyy and former U.S. President Joe Biden should have done more to come to terms with Putin.

“Russia attacked, but they shouldn’t have let him attack,” he said during a radio interview with Brian Kilmeade of Fox News, referring to the Russian leader.

Russia’s army crossed the border on Feb. 24, 2022, in an all-out invasion that Putin sought to justify by falsely saying it was needed to protect Russian-speaking civilians in eastern Ukraine and prevent the country from joining NATO.

Later on Friday, at the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that the war “doesn’t affect the United States very much. It’s on the other side of the ocean. It does affect Europe.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose position on Ukraine has differed sharply from the European mainstream, appeared to echo some of the Trump administration’s recent rhetoric on Saturday. He described Hungary’s war-ravaged neighbor as a “buffer zone” between Russia and NATO and implied Budapest might block Kyiv’s efforts to join the EU.

Ukraine’s European allies

Thousands of people waving blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags marched to the Russian Embassy in London on Saturday, demanding Ukraine be given more support and a place at the table in talks to end the three-year war.

Protesters chanted “Trump you’re no friend, you’re a traitor to Ukraine.” Organizers called for the withdrawal of Russian troops and increased military aid to strengthen Kyiv’s hand.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is due to visit Washington next week for talks focused on Ukraine. He has stressed that no decisions about the country’s future can be made without Kyiv’s involvement.

Starmer spoke to Zelenskyy on Saturday and reiterated “the U.K.’s ironclad support for Ukraine and commitment to securing a just and enduring peace to bring an end to Russia’s illegal war,” the prime minister’s office said.

Ukraine’s EU allies also seemed to rally around it, as the country’s foreign minister on Friday and Saturday held a series of bilateral calls that he said aimed to coordinate diplomatic efforts at a time of intense uncertainty over Washington’s position. According to Andrii Sybiha’s social media posts, he has been speaking with top diplomats from France, Spain, Poland, Finland and the Baltic states, among others.

“Allowing Putin to succeed would have disastrous consequences for the stability and common way of life of every family in Europe and the U.S. The cost of appeasement will be paid by ordinary people,” Sybiha said in a post on X on Saturday.