He recalled the saying “Two is needed for tango” and said that the heads of countries should meet before concluding a peace agreement. At the same time, the US President noted that Putin and Zelensky “do not really get along”, and that Putin will not like the need to meet.
“Putin was not glad to come to the United States. It was a big concession, and I appreciate that he did it,” Trump said.
He emphasized that he always had good relations with the Russian Federation, despite what he called “hunting for Russia.”
Context
Trump and Putin summit took place in Anchorida on August 15. The negotiations lasted three hours. Trump, before the meeting, said that he wanted to achieve a ceasefire in the Russian-Ukrainian war, but he failed.
On August 18, in Washington, a meeting of Trump and European leaders took place, including was Zelensky. They talked about guarantees of security and the upcoming meeting of Zelensky with Putin, as well as their trilateral meeting with Trump. On the same day, the US president called Putin on the phone, and later stated that He began the organization of the meeting between him and Zelensky. However, the Kremlin He began to put forward the conditions.
The White House was repeated on August 19 that Putin agreed to a bilateral meeting, but after that the Russian Foreign Ministry once again said that negotiations were at the highest level “You need to carefully prepare.”
Zelensky said that his bilateral meeting with Putin should take place in “neutral” Europe. The head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andrei Ermak in an interview published on August 21, said there are several options Places of the meeting of Zelensky with Putin, among them – Geneva, Istanbul, Vatican, Saudi Arabia.
