The Kremlin said earlier this week that a face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump was possible as early as this month, according to media reports.
Moscow and Washington have already held talks in Saudi Arabia to discuss the war in Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, without any European leaders present at the meeting. Earlier this week, some EU leaders gathered in Paris for emergency talks about the war in Ukraine and European security.
Last week, Russian officials were publicly delighted to see the U.S. administration’s apparent U-turn in its discourse on the Russia-Ukraine war, after Trump wrongfully accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of being a “dictator.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. and Ukraine are still in talks over a proposed deal for Ukrainian rare earths and other minerals in exchange of financial support to fend off Russia, according to media reports.