By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday has said that Russia proposed a bilateral meeting with Ukraine, followed by a trilateral meeting, according to media reports.
Zelensky said that he is ready for “any format” of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a news conference after his meetings with President Donald Trump at the White House.
He said that he would participate in the 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.
He 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, media reported.
Trump said that he had started to arrange a two-way peace meeting between Ukraine’s Zelensky and Russia’s Putin to be followed by trilateral three-way talks with Trump present.
He said after hosting Zelensky and European leaders at the White House “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,”.
“After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself.”
Zelensky gave an upbeat assessment of talks with his US counterpart Trump and said they discussed security guarantees.
“We had a very good conversation with President Trump, and it really was the best one or, sorry, maybe the best one will be in the future,” Zelensky said at an expanded meeting with European leaders.
Both Zelenskyy and Trump expressed hope that Monday’s critical talks with Ukrainian and European leaders at the White House could lead to trilateral talks with Putin to bring an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The meeting came after Trump met with Putin and has said that the onus is now on Zelensky to agree to concessions that he said could end the war.
European Union leaders also met with Trump and they are looking to safeguard Ukraine and the continent from any widening aggression from Moscow.
