OAN Staff Katherine Mosack and Brooke Mallory
4:28 PM – Thursday, August 7, 2025
Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump are reportedly finalizing plans for their upcoming meeting, which will be focused on exploring resolution efforts concerning the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The high-level meeting, which is intended to address potential pathways toward resolving the ongoing conflict between the two nations, is expected to focus on diplomatic initiatives aimed at de-escalating tensions, exploring ceasefire agreements, and discussing frameworks for a sustainable peace process.
Both leaders appear to be seeking avenues to foster dialogue, though the geopolitical complexities and diverging interests of the involved parties have previously presented significant challenges to reaching a consensus. The outcome of these discussions could have far-reaching implications for regional stability and international relations.
However, critics of Putin argue that meetings with the Russian president are ultimately futile, as he often feigns agreement with Trump, only to later abandon his promises. Trump has also previously corroborated the same sentiment.
In April this year, Trump vented his frustration by suggesting that Putin might be “stringing him along,” hinting that the Russian leader was feigning cooperation without following through on commitments.
“I’m not happy with him, I can tell you that much right now. This is killing a lot of people,” Trump said previously, expressing his discontent with Putin’s continued aggression despite their talks.
Although the venue for the Trump-Putin meeting has been decided, it has not yet been publicly disclosed to the press.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters with The New York Post on Thursday that they are “starting to work on specific issues” regarding the meeting.
The plans also come at a time when Trump is threatening Russian oil buyers with secondary tariffs in an attempt by the U.S. to push Putin to agree to a truce by Friday, and hopefully, end the four-year-long war.
Earlier this week, a White House official told the press that the U.S. would not agree to meet with Putin without an agreement on Russia’s end — include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. On Thursday, Putin told reporters that he did not object to meeting with Zelensky.
However, when questioned in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump categorically denied that Zelensky’s attendance was a prerequisite for his meeting with Putin, responding simply, “no.”
“They would like to meet with me, and I’ll do whatever I can to stop the killing,” Trump said.
Nonetheless, Zelensky remains keen to engage directly with the Russian president, having explored “several formats” for negotiations during a phone conversation on Wednesday with Trump and European allies, a discussion he detailed in a post on X.
“I’m grateful to President Trump for his openness to seeking truly effective solutions,” the Ukrainian president wrote in the same post. “Here in Ukraine, we are confident that this war can be ended with a lasting peace. But every step must be carefully considered to hit the mark.”
“Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side,” Zelensky said online.
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