White House names team for facilitating Putin-Zelensky meeting
The White House has announced that several senior US officials will be working to expedite a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky.
Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and presidential envoy Steve Witkoff will lead coordination efforts to make the talks happen “as soon as possible,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.
She said that US President Donald Trump spoke with Putin by phone, “and he agreed to begin the next phase of the peace process,” referring to the Russian president meeting with Zelensky, which “would be followed, if necessary, by a trilateral meeting.”
Trump held a summit with Putin in Alaska last week, and later hosted Zelensky along with his Western European backers for talks focused on the peace process. Moscow has confirmed its readiness to take part in further discussions aimed at achieving a lasting solution to the Ukraine conflict.
The US president has since begun efforts to arrange a Putin-Zelensky meeting, while simultaneously urging the Ukrainian leader to be “more flexible.”
