Berlin [Germany] / Kiev [Ukraine], August 8: Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly confirmed for the first time on Thursday his planned meeting with US President Donald Trump and said the UAE could be a suitable location for the summit.
Earlier, the Kremlin had confirmed the Trump-Putin summit, saying preparations were already under way, according to a voice message from Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov that the Kremlin published. Ushakov said the initiative for the US-Russia meeting came from Washington. He had said that there was an agreement on the location but that it would be announced later.
Moscow reserved about meeting with Zelensky Trump plans to first meet Putin and then expand the talks into a trilateral meeting with Zelensky. However, the Kremlin has been reserved about a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.
On Thursday, Putin said he considers a meeting with Zelensky as possible, but the conditions for such negotiations must be right, and the prerequisites for this are still far from being met.
Putin made his comments at the Kremlin on the sidelines of a meeting with Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Putin did not list his conditions, but previously the Kremlin had insisted that Ukraine give up the territories Russia occupies, including Crimea which it illegally annexed in 2014, that western nations stop supplying Ukraine with weapons and that they exclude Ukraine from NATO membership.
Earlier in the day, Putin adviser Ushakov downplayed the potential for a meeting with Zelensky.
Source: Qatar Tribune
