London – The Kremlin confirmed on Thursday morning the American president Donald Trump and the Russian president Vladimir Putin accepted a meeting, although a specific date or place has not yet been announced.
Putin’s advisor Yuri Ushakov said that a “meeting between Putin and Trump (will take place) in the coming days”, adding that “work on the summit has now started”.
Ushakov said that the White House special envoy Steve Witkoff had raised the idea of a trilateral meeting between Putin, Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but that the next meeting would only be between Trump and Putin.
“The meeting place between the presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, was agreed, and the Kremlin will inform it later,” said Ushakov.
Witkoff met Putin on Wednesday before Trump’s Friday deadline for Moscow to make peace with Ukraine or face serious sanctions.
TOPSHOT – (Files) US President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin before a meeting in Helsinki on July 16, 2018. US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin could come together for a summit next week, the Kremlin said on August 7. 2021, and comes while Trump seeks to negotiate the end of the military assault of Russia against Ukraine.
Alexey Nikolsky / Sputnik / AFP via Getty Images
Trump, on social networks, suggested that the meeting between Witkoff and Putin was “very productive”.
“Great progress has been made! Subsequently, I updated some of our European allies. Everyone should be ended, and we will work there in the days and weeks to come,” wrote Trump.
Last month, Trump said that he would impose additional economic measures – including secondary sanctions on customers of Russian fossil fuels exports, the most important of which are India and China – if Putin had not accepted a cease -fire by August 8.
David Brennan and Shannon Kingston of ABC News contributed to this report.
