Trump-Putin summit preparations are under way, Russia says

Preparations are under way for a face-to-face meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said.

It marks a dramatic shift away from western isolation of Moscow over its war in Ukraine.

Speaking to Russian state media, Sergei Ryabkov said a possible Putin-Trump summit could involve broad talks on global issues, not just the war in Ukraine.

“The question is about starting to move towards normalising relations between our countries, finding ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, of which there are many, Ukraine among them,” he said.

Mr Ryabkov added that US and Russian envoys could meet “within the next two weeks”, to pave the way for further talks between senior officials.

Russian and US representatives on Tuesday agreed to start working towards ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, according to the two countries’ top diplomats, at a high-level meeting in Saudi Arabia that marked an extraordinary about-face in US foreign policy under Mr Trump.

After the meeting, US secretary of state Marco Rubio told the Associated Press that the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow; to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks; and to explore closer relations and economic co-operation.

He stressed, however, that the talks — which were attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, and other senior Russian and US officials — marked the beginning of a conversation, and more work needs to be done. Mr Lavrov, for his part, hailed the meeting as “very useful”.

No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, which came as the beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops, nearly three years after Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its smaller neighbour.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would not accept any outcome from the talks since Kyiv did not take part, and he postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia scheduled for last Wednesday.

European allies have also expressed concerns that they are being sidelined.

On Friday Mr Trump appeared to walk back his earlier comments that falsely blamed Kyiv for starting the war, but insisted that Mr Zelensky and former US president Joe Biden should have done more to come to terms with Mr Putin.

“Russia attacked, but they shouldn’t have let him attack,” he said during a radio interview with Brian Kilmeade of Fox News, referring to the Russian leader.

Russia’s army crossed the border on February 24 2022, in an all-out invasion that Mr Putin sought to justify by falsely saying it was needed to protect Russian-speaking civilians in eastern Ukraine and prevent the country from joining Nato.

Later on Friday, at the Oval Office, Mr Trump told reporters that the war “doesn’t affect the United States very much. It’s on the other side of the ocean. It does affect Europe”.