White House spokesman, Karoline Leavitt, in a press conference at the White House in Washington, DC, on August 19, 2025. Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP / Profimedia
The spokeswoman for the White House, Karoline Leavitt, said on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to have discussions with Ukrainian leader Volodmir Zelenski, CNN and Sky News reports.
At a press conference, Leavitt was asked by a reporter if Putin promised that he would have a direct meeting, in the coming weeks, with the Ukrainian president.
“Yes, he promised, and I just answered this question,” she said.
Previously, in the answer to a question of a CNN journalist, Karoline Leavitt had been much vague about the fact that Putin had accepted the meeting.
“I can assure you that the United States government and the Trump administration collaborate with both Russia and Ukraine so that this bilateral meeting will take place,” she said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, refused to engage in a meeting between Putin and Zelenski, but did not exclude the possibility of further discussions.
What Lavrov said:
- “We do not reject any form of collaboration – neither bilateral nor trilateral, the president repeatedly spoke about this. The main thing is that any format is not included not for someone to write in the newspapers the next morning or to broadcast on the TV in the evening, or to gossip on social networks, in trying to take advantage of propaganda, but to advance step by step, gradually, starting from the level of experts and then traveling all the necessary stages to prepare the summits. This is the kind of serious approach that we will always support“.
Lavrov's statements were made one day after US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski met and expressed hope that their discussions could open the way for trilateral negotiations with the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During an intervention on the Rossiya-21 State Television State, Lavrov said that Russia remains engaged in the efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, both in bilateral and trilateral format.
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Karoline Leavitt reiterated during her press conference at the White House that President Donald Trump “permanently excludes” the sending of US troops to Ukraine as part of any security guarantees to reach a peace agreement with Russia, but did not exclude other military options, including in the air space.
“It is an option and a possibility. I will not exclude with certainty nothing of the military options that the president has available.
Trump himself has previously declared during the day that he can provide personal guarantees that he will not send US troops to Ukraine to impose a peace agreement with Russia. In a telephone interview with Fox News, Trump was asked: “What kind of guarantees do you think you have, after the termination of the Trump administration, that there will be no American troops on the field to defend the border (Ukraine)?”.
“Well, you have my insurance, and I'm the president,” Trump replied. “I just try to prevent the killing of people,” the American leader said.
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Leavitt also said Tuesday that Trump asked his national security team to coordinate the actions with Europe and continue discussions on this topic with Ukraine and Russia.
“We can certainly help coordinate and we can offer other means of security guarantees to our European allies,” Leavitt said. “The president understands that security guarantees are extremely important to ensure sustainable peace and ordered his national security team to coordinate actions with our friends in Europe and to continue cooperation and discussions on these issues with Ukraine and Russia,” she said.
The plans for the meeting between Putin and Zelenski, “under development”
Plans for a bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski are “in development”, being discussed “many options”, the white house spokeswoman announced on Tuesday.
She repeatedly refused to answer questions about locations for such a meeting.
“Both leaders have expressed their desire to meet, and our national security team will help both countries to do so,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House Briefing.
Pressed by a journalist on how the plans changed-from a possible trilateral meeting (Trump-Zenski-Putin) to a bilateral one (Putin-Zenski)-Leavitt said that “it was an idea that evolved during the President's conversations (Trump) with President Putin, who adds to the President, This is an important first step. “
Trump, said Karoline Leavitt, is “aging” with the idea of a bilateral meeting without the presence of the US.
“Finally, the president has always said that there are areas of disagreement in this war that will have to be discussed and decided by these two countries. Therefore, he wants these two countries to engage in direct diplomacy,” she pointed out.
