Ukraine’s Zelensky Ready for Three-Way Meeting With Trump and Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his willingness to participate in a trilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, AFP reports.

Zelensky confirmed he is open to a summit in the format of "Trump–Putin–me."

“If Putin is uncomfortable with a bilateral meeting, or if everyone prefers it to be trilateral, I have no objection. I'm ready for any format,” he said.

At the same time, the Ukrainian president urged the US to tighten sanctions against Russia. According to Zelensky, he has already discussed the issue with President Trump.

“We spoke about two key sectors — energy and banking. Can the US impose sanctions on these two sectors? I would really like that,” he added.

According to most recent reports, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the date of the next round of talks with Ukraine would be announced soon.

Putin and Zelensky previously met only once — during the Normandy Format summit in Paris on December 9, 2019. Their talks lasted more than an hour, first with their respective delegations and then one-on-one.

In the fall of 2022, after Russia annexed the DPR, LPR, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, Zelensky signed a decree banning negotiations with Russia as long as Putin remains president. However, in spring 2025, Zelensky stated that the ban no longer applied to him.

Zelensky also noted that Ukraine has yet to receive a draft memorandum from Russia for resolving the conflict. Putin had announced Moscow’s readiness to work with Kyiv on such a document three days after delegations from the two countries met in Istanbul.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the memorandum would outline Moscow’s positions on conflict resolution principles, timelines for a possible peace agreement, and the potential for a temporary ceasefire if agreements are reached.

Ukraine has already submitted its version of the memorandum to the US. Ihor Brusilo, deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said the Ukrainian proposal calls for an unconditional ceasefire to initiate negotiations.

“All other stages will be defined during the talks,” Brusilo stated.

US special representative Keith Kellogg suggested that after both sides complete their versions of the memorandum, another round of negotiations could take place. He named Geneva as a possible venue and did not rule out the summit being held at the level of heads of state — Trump, Putin, and Zelensky.

Details

There have been several rounds of peace talks to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine since it began in February 2022. Russia's president Vladimir Putin seeks recognition of all occupied land as Russian, for Russia to be given all of the regions it claims but does not fully control, guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO, and the lifting of sanctions against Russia. Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy seeks a full withdrawal of Russian troops, the return of prisoners and kidnapped Ukrainian children, prosecution of Russian leaders for war crimes, and security guarantees to prevent further Russian aggression. The first meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials took place four days after the invasion began, on 28 February 2022, in Belarus, and concluded without result. Later rounds of talks took place in March 2022 on the Belarus–Ukraine border and in Antalya, Turkey. Negotiations in Turkey created an agreement in which Ukraine would abandon plans to join NATO and have limits placed on its military, while having security guarantees from Western countries, and not being required to recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea. The draft treaty was almost agreed to, but disagreements over security guarantees and the Bucha massacre ultimately halted negotiations. Renewed negotiations began in 2025 after Donald Trump became president of the United States. Trump held a phone call with Putin on 12 February and U.S. officials met with Zelenskyy shortly after. Saudi Arabia emerged as the primary host country for peace talks. After a U.S.–Russia summit, the relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy deteriorated, culminating in a 28 February meeting between the two in which U.S. officials asked the Ukrainians to leave midway through and abandoned a planned Ukraine–U.S. mineral revenue deal. After the meeting, British prime minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron created a plan for a ceasefire protected by a "coalition of the willing" with troops in Ukraine. Starting from March, some limited truces were occasionally agreed to by both Russia and Ukraine.