Moscow remains ready for Putin-Trump talks – presidential aide
Russia remains ready for a potential meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, presidential aide Yury Ushakov has said.
Asked on Monday about the time frame for a potential summit, Ushakov refused to give an estimate.
“There is no timetable yet, but there is a fundamental readiness to hold a meeting if it is prepared by experts in advance,” Ushakov stated.
Pressed further on whether a meeting could still occur this year, Ushakov replied, “I don’t know,” but pointed out that the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska held in August had been prepared very quickly.
Earlier this month, Trump proposed holding a summit with Putin in Budapest, Hungary, while Moscow signaled its willingness to participate. However, the idea was called off by the US leader just a few days later, when he said it “didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get” and called for an immediate halt to hostilities along the front lines of the Ukraine conflict.
The remarks marked a sharp change in Trump’s rhetoric, as the US president had previously called for a comprehensive peace agreement to resolve the conflict rather than a temporary pause in hostilities. That is the approach backed by Moscow, which has also long maintained it is seeking a lasting solution to bring the crisis to its end.
Kiev and its Western backers have repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire, while Moscow says this will only serve to give Ukraine time to regroup its military and receive more arms.
