US President Donald Trump said he “sort of” set up the call between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
Trump confirmed he called Putin following Monday’s summit with Zelensky and European leaders, a meeting that stemmed from his talks with Putin in Alaska on Friday.
Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday, Trump hinted at progress on the bilateral Zelensky-Putin meeting – a proposal long sought by Kyiv but repeatedly rejected by Moscow.
“I sort of set it up with Putin and Zelensky, and you know, they’re the ones that have to call the shots, we’re, we’re 7,000 miles away,” Trump said.
Echoing Trump, Zelensky said after Monday’s talks that any discussion of territorial concessions would be strictly between him and Putin, without outside involvement.
Trump also said the call with Putin was made without the European leaders’ presence in fear of being “disrespectful to President Putin.”
Trump added that he will go for a trilateral meeting if the meeting goes well – a potential contradiction to his Monday remarks to Zelensky that he will be there if the Zelensky-Putin talks materialize.
“I called President Putin, and we’re trying to work out a meeting with President Zelensky and we’ll see what happens there and then if that works out, if it works out, then I’ll go to the trilat and close it up,” Trump added, referring to the trilateral meeting as a “trilat.”
Trump also suggested the Ukrainian and Russian heads of state are “getting along” despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I think the fact that maybe they’re getting along a little bit better than I thought otherwise, I wouldn’t have set up the two meeting. I would have set up the three, a trilat, but I think they’re doing a little bit better. There’s been tremendous bad blood,” Trump added.
While unnamed officials familiar with the talks suggested a Zelensky-Putin meeting could happen as early as August, leaders have yet to offer a concrete date.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who took part in Monday’s talks, suggested Geneva as a possible venue. But the proposal is seen as unlikely since Putin faces an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, which Switzerland would be obliged to enforce if he entered the country.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Putin had agreed to meet Zelensky within two weeks but expressed doubt over whether the Kremlin leader would actually attend, according to CNN.
In May, Putin responded to Europe’s ceasefire ultimatum by reviving the Istanbul talks, yet sent only a historian as his representative, with senior figures such as the defense and foreign ministers also conspicuously absent.