A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump is “necessary in many ways” but has not yet been planned, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
“Such a meeting is clearly on the radar,” he added.
“It must be prepared appropriately, and this requires efforts at various levels of experts,” said Peskov.
But what does “efforts” come in? First and foremost, Kremlin's commitment to a ceasefire in his war against Ukraine, explains Kurt Volker, former American special representative for Ukrainian negotiations under Trump.
In an interview with Euronews from the kyiv Security Forum, Volker said that the American president would like to meet his Russian counterpart, but only after a cease-fire in Ukraine.
“(Trump) wants to end the war, then he would like to rebuild a relationship with Russia. He thinks that you could reintegrate Russia into a global economy, you could do business with Russia, but Putin must first stop the war,” said Volker.
“And since Putin does not do, the prospects of a Trump-Putin meeting are looking more and more.”
Volker was a Ukrainian negotiator of Washington between 2017 and 2019, when Putin and Trump had their last meetings in Helsinki, then during the G20 rally in Osaka.
“ Poutine tries to play the ego of President Trump '
Volker says that the Russian president “tries to play with the ego of President Trump saying: OK, we can sit the man to man, we can solve this problem”.
At the start of his second term, Trump said he would meet Putin “very quickly” after taking office.
“I think that President Trump in some respects considers himself a strong figure capable of doing it. But he is not satisfied with Putin who did not end the war. And I, this is where this idea of a meeting will simply occur unless the circumstances change,” said Volker.
Volker told Euronews that there had been a significant change of heart to Washington concerning Putin's desire to stop her war against Ukraine. “It is clear that the United States and Ukraine are aligned to request a full ceasefire for 30 days. And it's a springboard to a permanent ceasefire. And Putin laughs at that. “
“It is not serious about stopping the fights. And you take the meaning now in Washington that people recognize this and call Putin, if you want, saying that Russia demands too much and that they do not accept a cease-fire,” said Volker.
Instead, the Russian president announced on Friday a “unilateral ceasefire” of three days to protect and secure the parade of the victory day in Moscow on Friday.
“Putin is not serious about a ceasefire. He is not serious about the idea of stopping his attacks. I think he wants to make a political gesture here, especially since he aligns with his military parade in Moscow,” said Volker, adding that he would be “surprised if he even respects his own ceasefire”.
ADVERTISEMENTWhat will Washington do now?
US vice-president JD Vance admitted this week that talks to end the Russian war against Ukraine are far from being the initial expectations of Washington.
“Currently, the Russians are asking for a certain set of requirements, a certain set of concessions in order to put an end to the conflict. We think they are asking too much,” said Vance.
The American administration can now “harden its rhetoric on the assault of Russia and their reluctance to have a cease-fire,” Volker told Euronews.
This would be the first step followed by an “renewed accent on sanctions against Russia”, perhaps including secondary sanctions “against those who help Russia escape initial sanctions against oil and gas and financial industry”, “
ADVERTISEMENTAnd above all, Washington will continue to provide weapons to Ukraine. “It will not be taxpayers' money. This time of credits simply give money to taxpayers to finance Ukraine, I think, is over. But I could see loans for Ukraine, a loan rental policy as we did for the United Kingdom during the Second World War,” he added.
Although it has not excluded the seizure of frozen Russian assets and use it to pay weapons to Ukraine, “Canada moves in this direction, and I would not be surprised if the United States does as well,” concluded Ambassador Volker.
