White House spokesman Karoline Levitt in a briefing on Tuesday said Vladimir Putin went to a bilateral meeting with the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky.
US president Donald Trump on Monday, after a conversation with the head of Kremlin Vladimir Putin, announced that he was beginning to prepare a meeting between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia. Vladimir Zelensky is not opposed, but Russia has continued to comment on this issue unconditionally. Among the possible meeting places is Budapest.
US statements
“The President (Trump) has always said that in this war there are issues with disagreements that these two countries should discuss and resolve. Therefore, he wants these two countries to enter direct diplomatic negotiations,” White house spokesman Caroline Levitt said.
According to Levitt, in a conversation with Donald Trump, leaders and Ukraine “expressed their willingness to sit at the negotiation table, so our national security group will help both countries do it.”
To clarify if Putin confirmed in a conversation with Trump prepared for a bilateral meeting with Zelensky, the White House spokesman confirmed it several times.
“This idea appeared in the President’s conversation with Putin, Zelensky and European leaders. And, as you saw, all European leaders who left the White House, including the Secretary of NATO secretary, said it was a great first step,” Levitt said.
“The fact that Putin said:” Of course, I will meet with Zelensky, “is a great success,” US secretary Marco Rubio said. “I’m not saying they will come out at this meeting with best friends. I’m not saying they will come out of a peaceful agreement, but I think the truth is talking to each other, which has not happened in three and a half years.”
Zelensky position
Vladimir Zelensky joins this plan. “Russia recommends a bilateral meeting of Ukraine – Russia, and then a tripartite. As I said, we are ready for any formats at the level of leaders, due to only the level of leaders we can solve all complex, painful issues,” said the President of Ukraine.
Donald Trump said he agreed with Putin to start preparing for the Russian-Ukrainian Summit, and then for a Tripartite United States participation meeting.
Kremlin replied
The Kremlin’s answer is more onstreamline. Putin’s assistant Yuri Ushakov said the presidents of the United States and Russia “discussed the idea of increasing the level of representatives of Moscow and Kyiv” in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow did not refuse any negotiations in Ukraine, or from bilateral or tripartite. At the same time, he emphasized that it was necessary to prepare for the summit “extremely careful”, “step -step, gradually, starting at the expert level and then passing all the necessary steps”.
Where the meeting will take place
Among the possible options for the meeting were called Hungary (reported by Reuters with reference to resources in the US administration), Switzerland (French President Emmanuel Macron) and Italy (the country’s prime minister George Melony proposed to conduct a Roman summit).
The chairman of the largest Hungary opposition party Tisa Peter Merk turned to Viktor Orban with an appeal to arrange a meeting of Ukraine and Russia leaders in Budapest.
Source: korrespondent
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