Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly offered to host peace talks between himself and President Zelensky in Moscow during a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Monday.
As per BFMTV, an anonymous source told AFP that Putin had “mentioned” Moscow during the call. President Zelensky, along with several other European leaders in the White House at the time, is said to have “replied no.”
In an interview aired Tuesday on French news channel BFI, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the summit will be hosted by “a neutral country, maybe Switzerland – I’m pushing for Geneva – or another country.”
But Putin is unlikely to embrace this suggestion.
The International Criminal Court (ICC), to which Switzerland is a signatory, issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023, accusing him of unlawfully deporting and transferring thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia – a war crime under international law.
However, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said on Tuesday that Switzerland was “more than ready” to host the trilateral talks, as per European Pravda. Because Putin would be visiting specifically for peace talks, he could be granted temporary immunity from the arrest warrant.
Cassis added that he had already made this offer to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.
Also on Tuesday, Lavrov told Russian state media that any meeting would have to be planned “step by step, gradually, starting from the expert level and then going through all the necessary stages,” according to Politico.
This statement seemingly runs contrary to the expectations of Ukraine’s allies.
According to Sky News, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that Trump agrees with him that the Putin and Zelensky meeting should happen within the next two weeks.
“There’s a feeling that these are decisive days for Ukraine,” he added, though he also expressed doubts about whether Putin would show.