Donald Trump is holding back from direct involvement in negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, instead urging Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to hold a bilateral meeting before he joins the process.
According to administration officials, the president wants the Russian and Ukrainian leaders to meet face-to-face as the next stage towards peace, with the prospect of a trilateral summit involving him only after such talks take place.
In a radio interview on Tuesday, Trump said he believed it would be better for the two men to meet without him initially. “I just want to see what happens at the meeting,” he told host Mark Levin. “So they’re in the process of setting it up and we’re going to see what happens.”
Trump’s shift comes as he has admitted that ending the conflict is proving harder than he anticipated. On the campaign trail last year, he insisted he could broker peace within 24 hours of taking office. Earlier this month, his own deadline for Russia to end the war expired without progress.
Following meetings with Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House on Monday, Trump said he had taken steps towards arranging a bilateral meeting. A senior administration official described his position as a “wait-and-see approach”, adding that no venue had yet been agreed for potential talks.
Trump continues engagement with Russia, Ukraine officials
The White House later confirmed that Trump and his national security team were continuing to engage with Russian and Ukrainian officials. “It is not in the national interest to further negotiate these issues publicly,” a statement said.
Trump also spoke with Putin on Monday in a 40-minute call. Afterwards, Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said the two leaders had agreed to appoint senior negotiators for direct talks, suggesting a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy may still be some way off.
Despite this, Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, voiced optimism that a meeting could be arranged within two weeks. Putin has previously rejected several overtures from Zelenskyy for a face-to-face dialogue since the start of the war.
At a press conference following his Washington visit, Zelenskyy said discussions with Trump and European leaders had centred on security guarantees for Ukraine in any peace deal, aimed at preventing a renewed Russian assault. Trump indicated the United States could contribute to such guarantees, though he has ruled out deploying American troops on the ground. Instead, any US involvement is expected to focus on intelligence sharing and possible air support.
