By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could happen in the next two weeks.
He was speaking in an interview with the French LCI news channel, Macron said that Putin, who held phone talks with US President Donald Trump on Monday, expressed his readiness to meet Zelensky within that timeframe, media reported.
“We have decided to have a bilateral meeting between the two Presidents, then a trilateral meeting (with Trump), and then a multilateral meeting where the Europeans must be at the table,” Macron said.
He added that such meetings should be held in Europe, reflected the “collective will” of European leaders.
Macron suggested that the upcoming meetings could take place in a “neutral country,” such as Switzerland or Turkey, where Russia and Ukraine have previously held bilateral talks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia proposed a bilateral meeting with Ukraine, followed by a trilateral meeting.
Zelensky said on Monday that he is ready for “any format” of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin after meeting with the US President Donald Trump at the White House, in a news conference.
He said that he would participate in the following trilateral meeting, depending on how the first meeting goes.
Zelensky added that he does not know the details about the proposed bilateral meeting.
He said that he does not want to impose conditions on the meeting because Putin would follow with his own conditions.
“I believe unconditionally we should meet and think about the further development of this path to the end of the war,” he said.
Putin told Trump on Monday that he is willing to meet Zelensky, a person familiar with the call said.
Putin told Trump in Alaska, showed his readiness to meet Zelensky during a telephone call in a break from White House talks in Washington with European leaders, the person said on condition of anonymity.
Trump said that he had started arranging a two-way peace meeting between Ukraine’s Zelensky and Russia’s Putin to be followed by three-way talks involving himself.
“At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky,” he said after hosting the Ukrainian President and European leaders at the White House.
Trump added “After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself.”
