The day before the ultimatum expires, Trump says what he will do with Putin, after the Kremlin refused to talk to Kiev

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday evening that he is prepared to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, despite the Kremlin leader to meet Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski, shattering speculation that direct discussions between the two heads of a state of state would be organized in a high condition. US and Russia, The Guardian reports.

The deadline granted by the US president of Russia to end the Ukraine war or to suffer severe economic sanctions on Friday, but it is not clear how it intends to proceed in the context of new efforts to organize a summit with Vladimir Putin and delicate commercial negotiations, CNN comments.

Trump promised earlier this week that he would apply new sanctions against Russia, even though they bent on their effectiveness.

The White House leader told reporters in the Oval Office that Putin should not meet Zelenski first to meet the US and Russia.

“No, you don't have to,” Trump said. “They want to meet me and I will do everything I can to stop the killings.”

Copyradic messages from the White and Kremlin House

The statements of the American leader contradict the reports of New York Post and CNN, who cited a white house official who said that Trump will meet Putin only if the Kremlin leader will meet Zelenski, which Putin had previously rejected.

Concluding messages-the officials of the White House and the Kremlin sometimes contradicted on the requests of the leaders and the stage of planning-suggests a new chaotic chapter in Trump's efforts to negotiate an armistice in the Ukraine war.

Putin said he was not prepared to meet Zelenski, even though the Kremlin said they are preparations for a bilateral summit with Donald Trump next week.

“I have nothing against it in general, it is possible, but certain conditions must be created for it,” Putin said about meeting Zelenski. “But unfortunately, we are still far from creating such conditions.”

After Putin met in Kremlin with Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, Washington voices suggested that the Russian president had agreed with Trump and then with Zelenski in a trilateral format.

And, although the Kremlin seemed excited about the perspective of a summit, he denied that he had discussed a trilateral summit with Zelenski.

“We propose to focus first and foremost on the preparations for a bilateral meeting with Trump,” the journalists from Moscow Iuri Usakov, the counselor of Putin told Moscow. “As for the tripartite meeting, which Washington spoke yesterday for some reasons, this was just a mention of the American part during the Kremlin meeting. But this was not discussed. The Russian part left this option completely without comments.”

The place of the meeting, uncertain

No place was indicated for the possible bilateral summit, but Putin, who met at the Kremlin with Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the leader of the United Arab Emirates, suggested that Eau could be a suitable place for discussions. “We have many friends who are willing to help us organize such events. One of our friends is the president of the United Arab Emirates,” he said.

The prospect that Putin and Trump will try to reach an agreement on Ukraine without anyone else in the room is likely to alarm Kiev and European capitals, who have constantly stated that Ukraine should be present at his fate discussions.

Instead, Russia is in favor of the idea of a “great powers” that could try to negotiate with Trump over the heads of Europeans. Kirill Dmitriev, Kremlin's economic counselor, said the meeting would be a good opportunity to discuss directly with Trump to prevent “misinformation” of Russia that other countries use to influence the US president. The summit could become “an important historical event,” he said.

Trump called Zelenski after Witkoff left Russia on Wednesday. The head of NATO, Mark Rutte, and several European leaders, also participated in the conversation.

The Kiev leader avoided criticizing Trump on Thursday, but said he would spend the day talking to European allies. “We, in Ukraine, have repeatedly stated that finding real solutions can only become effective at the level of leaders. We must decide the right time for such a format, with a number of problems,” he wrote in a Telegram post.

Later, he said he spoke to the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron. “I presented (to Macron) the point of view of Ukraine about the discussion between President Trump and the European colleagues,” he said. “We coordinate our positions and we both understand the need for a common European vision on key European security issues.”

Zelenski asks for a direct meeting with Putin

Zelenski has repeatedly requested direct discussions with Putin, Trump or Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as a mediator. Putin has rejected this possibility so far, suggesting that the lower -level negotiation groups should first reach an agreement. However, there were few progress in a series of direct discussions in Turkey, Moscow sending a lower rank delegation and not being prepared for real discussions.

In recent weeks, Trump has seemed to adopt a tougher position compared to Moscow for the first time since taking over, qualifying as “disgusting” continuous Russian attacks against Civil Targets in Ukraine and promising the introduction of new sanctions if no progress is made for an agreement to the deadline.

The White House officials said the sanctions are still expected, and additional rates were announced on Wednesday, based on Russian oil acquisitions. At the same time, however, Trump seemed satisfied with the result of Witkoff's discussions.

The Trump-Putin meeting, “soon”

Usakov said the discussions were “official” and said they had focused on a bright future between Washington and Moscow.

“It has been reaffirmed that Russian-American relationships could be based on a completely different, mutually advantageous scenario, which differs drastically from how they have developed in recent years,” Putin's counselor said.

Trump said on Wednesday night that the meeting could take place “very soon”. Other Washington officials seemed less safe. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that a meeting could take place soon, “but obviously, many must happen before this can be achieved.”

If it will take place, this would be the first high level meeting between US leaders and Russia from the meeting between Joe Biden and Putin in Geneva, 2021.