Vladimir Putin briefly suggested in a phone call with Donald Trump on Monday that he could host a potential one-on-one meeting with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Russia, according to officials familiar with the call.
The phone call took place as Zelenskyy and other European leaders had gathered at the White House. However, after the conversation concluded and the dignitaries present discussed it, one of the officials, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said “it was clear that it wasn’t serious” — an unsurprising conclusion given that the Kremlin has tried to assassinate Zelenskyy on multiple occasions, per Kyiv.
“Everyone immediately dismissed it and passed it by yesterday, and today the media is making a big deal out of it,” the official said.
A senior Trump administration official told POLITICO earlier that Putin had told Trump he wanted to meet Zelenskyy bilaterally.
Where the two meet next is unclear. French President Emmanuel Macron suggested Geneva as a possible venue, an idea that was quickly backed by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said his country was “ready for such a meeting” and clarified that Putin, who has been the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant since 2023 for war crimes in Ukraine committed during the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion, would not be arrested if he came to the Alpine country to participate in a “peace conference.”
However, several Russian officials on Tuesday tempered expectations that any sort of encounter between Putin and Zelenskyy was on the horizon.
Seb Starcevic contributed to this report.
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