Communication between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump is “extremely important” to an agreement on ending the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said Friday.
The comments came after Trump announced earlier Friday that he was ready to meet with Putin “as soon as we can set it up” to seek a ceasefire in the conflict. “I think it’s time for us to just do it. … We are gonna get it done,” he said.
“Contacts between President Putin and Trump are extremely important in the context of the Ukrainian settlement,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov during a daily press briefing Friday. “Of course, we agree with this thesis. This value can hardly be overestimated,” he added.
Peskov gave no information on potential timing of a Putin-Trump meeting.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, Trump claimed that “nothing is going to happen” until he and Putin “get together.”
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were meeting in Istanbul on Friday for their first direct peace talks in more than three years, spurred by pressure from Trump to help end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Turkey on Thursday ready for talks, Putin refused to attend and instead sent a lower-level delegation — angering Kyiv and casting doubt on Russia’s interest in negotiating a ceasefire.
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