White House: U.S.-Russia summit is Kremlin’s move
A U.S.-Russia summit was suggested by the Kremlin’s dictator Vladimir Putin during his Aug. 6 face-to-face with Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, Axios reported the following morning, citing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Trump is "open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelenskyy" and "wants this brutal war to end," she said.
Earlier that day, Trump told European leaders in a telephone conversation that he wanted to meet with Putin as soon as next week, hoping to hold a trilateral summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy afterward.
According to a White House official, Trump urged his aides to begin planning immediately, a process that normally requires significant time.
State Secretary Marco Rubio acknowledged that "a lot has to happen" before a trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy.
"There are still many impediments to overcome, and we hope to do that in the next few days and hours," he said, adding that the meeting between Putin and Witkoff helped the U.S. understand better the Russian conditions for ending the war.
Kyiv sees the proposal as a diplomatic maneuver aimed at softening Trump's current position toward Russia and easing his frustration with Putin.
It is also unclear whether Putin is willing to hold a trilateral summit, which Zelenskyy has proposed for several months.
Witkoff spent three hours in a meeting with Putin in Moscow two days before the deadline Trump gave the Kremlin to take concrete steps towards ending the war, threatening to impose secondary sanctions on countries purchasing Russian oil.
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