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President Donald Trump could meet Vladimir Putin as soon as next week, a White House official said on Wednesday, as the US continued preparations to impose secondary sanctions, including potentially in China, to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
Such a face-to-face meeting would be the first between a sitting US and Russian president since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021, some eight months before Russia launched the biggest attack on a European nation since World War 2nd.
Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019 and make no secret of their contempt for each other.
The New York Times reported that Trump told European leaders during a call on Wednesday that he intended to meet with Putin and then follow up with a trilateral involving the Russian leader and Zelenskiy.