(Bloomberg) — President-elect Donald Trump said a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is being set up, raising the prospect that the incoming US leader could push to start negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
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At a meeting with Republican governors at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, the incoming president told a reporter that Putin “wants to meet” and added, “we’re gonna — we’re setting it up.” Any such meeting, were it to happen, would come after he’s inaugurated as president, Trump said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that there were “no specifics” yet regarding organizing a meeting, but Putin has repeatedly stated that he was open to talking with Trump.
“We see that Mr. Trump also declares his readiness to solve problems through dialogue. We welcome this,” Peskov said, according to the Interfax news agency. “Apparently, after Mr. Trump enters the Oval Office, there will be some movement.” He also said that “no conditions are required” for contact between the two leaders.
Trump has said he wants to bring about an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine even before he takes office for his second presidential term on Jan. 20, and his rhetoric has raised fears an armistice would be favorable to Russia. Putin last month said he’s ready to talk to Trump.
When asked about the prospect of Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping joining Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the incoming US leader said, “to be determined, but President Putin wants to meet. He’s said that even publicly, and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess.”
The two leaders met in 2018 in Helsinki, during Trump’s first term. At the summit, Trump stunned his own officials by hailing Putin’s offer to help the US investigate allegations of Russian election meddling as an “incredible” gesture.
Still, during his first term in office, the US escalated sanctions on Russia and expelled diplomats.
Putin has called for Ukraine to withdraw forces from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of the country in return for a ceasefire by Russian troops. Moscow is also demanding that Ukraine formally gives up its bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and agrees to strict limits on the size of its military, conditions that Kyiv has firmly rejected.
Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rebuffed Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, but said Moscow was ready to hold negotiations to end the almost three-year-long war.
(Updates with Kremlin comment in the third and fourth paragraphs.)
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