Putin Promised Trump Trilateral Meeting – But Only If Zelensky Comes to Moscow

(Sergey Bobylev / Sputnik via AP) (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed on Wednesday he told President Donald Trump that a trilateral meeting to discuss peace in Ukraine was “possible” on one condition — President Volodymyr Zelensky come to Moscow.

Speaking in Beijing at the close of a state visit to China, the Russian leader was pressed by journalists on whether he would sit down with his Ukrainian counterpart.

Putin struck a sceptical tone, asking whether there was “any sense” in holding such a meeting, before stressing that he had already given the green light in conversations with Trump.

“I’ve never refused to do that, if it leads to positive outcomes,” he said. “And by the way, Donald asked me if it was possible and said it was possible. I said, ‘Let him come to Moscow.’”

The comments come as Trump attempts to broker a breakthrough in the war that has raged since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The president met both Putin and Zelensky in August, and has pushed for a summit with the two leaders as a precursor to peace talks with Washington.

For Kyiv, however, the Kremlin’s conditions look less like diplomacy and more like obstruction.

Zelensky has accused Moscow of dragging its feet to avoid meaningful negotiations, while Russian officials insist the agenda is not yet ready.

Meanwhile, in China, Putin boasted that “Russian forces are advancing on all fronts in Ukraine” and warned fighting would continue unless a peace deal was reached.