Russian President Vladimir Putin held a three-hour discussion with U.S. President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin on August 6, a meeting which appears to have set in motion planning for an upcoming Trump-Putin in-person meeting. After he had received a briefing from Wikoff on the meeting, Trump wrote in a post to his Truth Social account,
“My Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Great progress was made! Afterwards, I updated some of our European Allies. Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come.”
Within a few hours, reports began coming in that a meeting was possibly in the works. The New York Times reported that “President Trump intends to meet in person with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as soon as next week, and he plans to follow up shortly afterward with a meeting between himself, Mr. Putin and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the plan.”
The Times continued, “Mr. Trump disclosed his plans on Wednesday [August 6] in a call with European leaders.”
The news was confirmed by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said in a statement on August 6: “The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the President is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelensky. President Trump wants this brutal war to end.”
Earlier, Putin’s presidential aide, Yuri Ushakov, who participated in the meeting, commented,
