Witkoff in Moscow
On 6 August, Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The conversation lasted three hours, and according to Russian presidential aide Yuriy Ushakov, Putin received proposals from the US president, and the Russians also conveyed ‘some signals from the US regarding the Ukrainian issue.’ Separately, Witkoff had several meetings with Konstantin Dmitriev, director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Putin's confidant.
In the evening of the same day, a telephone conversation took place between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump. "Our common position with our partners is absolutely clear: the war must end. And it must be an honest end," Zelenskyy officially announced. Some European leaders also participated in the conversation.
An unnamed White House representative told The New York Times that Russia is willing to continue cooperation with the US, while on Friday, 8 August, the US will impose secondary sanctions. Later, the NYT reported, citing its own sources, that Donald Trump is seeking to hold a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy in the near future. According to the newspaper, the American president shared these plans in a conversation with European partners.
Fox News confirmed preparations for the meeting, which could take place as early as next week. According to White House spokeswoman Caroline Levitt, ‘the Russians have expressed a desire to meet with President Trump.’ He himself said at a press conference at the White House: "There is a good chance that this will happen. We haven't decided where yet, but today we had good talks with Putin."
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was a bit more specific. He said that Russia had offered something more or less definite for the first time: some specific conditions that at least give an idea of what it wants. These conditions, according to Rubio, are not very acceptable to Ukraine, but the Secretary of State still proposes to conduct negotiations and hints that we will have to agree to some of these unacceptable conditions. According to Rubio, the US President will make a decision on sanctions within the next 24-36 hours, i.e. by Friday.
On the morning of 7 August, Yuriy Ushakov announced that the venue for the meeting between Trump and Putin had already been agreed. However, there will be no trilateral meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the time being, as the Russians ‘left this proposal without comment’.
During talks with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Russian President said that the UAE could be one of the venues for his meeting with Trump, adding that he would not mind meeting with Zelenskyy under certain conditions.
The meeting was scheduled. The meeting was cancelled
Instead, on Thursday, the White House denied the Kremlin's claims that the meeting and its location had already been agreed upon.
A White House official told ABC News that the meeting location had not yet been determined. And for President Trump to meet with Putin, Putin must agree to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
However, Donald Trump himself later stated that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin regardless of whether he agreed to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself, various formats for meetings at the leadership level are currently being discussed — two bilateral options and one trilateral option. One thing is clear: certain proposals have been made and are being discussed, in particular with Ukraine's European partners, and it is likely that they, like the President of Ukraine, are not enthusiastic about Putin's initiatives but agree that the process (since it was initiated by Donald Trump) should continue.
Meanwhile, when asked by Radio Liberty whether the EU was disappointed that its representatives had not been invited to a possible trilateral meeting between Trump, Zelenskyy and Putin, European Commission representative Arianna Podestà replied that it was too early to talk about the EU's participation in such negotiations. However, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was ‘briefed in detail’ on the results of the telephone conversations and was in contact with the leaders.
Were the terms of the negotiations leaked to the Polish media?
The Polish portal Onet, citing unnamed sources, published the format of the agreements that were allegedly discussed by the Americans and Russians.
According to the portal, Steve Witkoff allegedly conveyed the following US proposal to Putin during the meeting:
- Ukraine and Russia will not conclude peace, but a truce;
- Russia's occupation of Ukrainian territories will be de facto recognised (discussions on their status may be postponed for 49 or 99 years);
- Most of the sanctions imposed on Russia will be lifted, and in the future, energy cooperation will resume, i.e., imports of Russian gas and oil.
At the same time, the agreement allegedly does not provide for NATO expansion, and Ukraine may continue to receive weapons from its partners.
Bloomberg reported, citing several sources familiar with the discussions, that Donald Trump ‘also suggested that Putin would be open to starting peace talks in exchange for discussing a territorial exchange.’ These words were later removed from the publication.
Sources in the OP: ‘Completely different issues were discussed’
Such agreements do not seem plausible, and there is no reason why Moscow would agree to them, a former high-ranking Ukrainian diplomat told LB.ua.
‘I don't believe that Putin can simply abandon the issue of Ukraine's NATO membership, which is fundamental for him. Moreover, the published conditions say nothing about the status of the Russian language and the Russian Church, and these issues are also priorities for the Kremlin,’ he said.
In his opinion, Russia is simply stalling for time to delay the introduction of sanctions until the BRICS participants, primarily India and China, come up with a consolidated position on the White House's threats to raise tariffs for countries that buy Russian oil.
The above points of the alleged agreements were also denied by LB.ua's interlocutors in the Office of the President.
‘We discussed completely different issues,’ said one of them, refusing, however, to disclose the details of the conversation between Zelenskyy and Trump.
Negotiations with Europe?
On Thursday evening, Steve Witkoff held a video conference with security advisers, which, according to Axios sources, included representatives from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and Finland, in addition to Ukraine. The publication noted that he was to report on his visit to Moscow and discuss a possible meeting between Trump and Putin.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the meeting of security advisers was ‘quite long, very detailed’ and had ‘a significant number of participants.’ He also added that the parties agreed to continue the discussion the next day.
‘We are continuing to work,’ was all that Andriy Yermak, head of the Presidential Office, wrote about the aforementioned conversation between the advisers.
After the meeting of security advisers, Zelenskyy spoke with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
‘We exchanged details of our recent contacts with other leaders... Giorgia clearly supports the position that European leaders should be involved in diplomatic efforts alongside the United States to establish peace... We coordinated our next steps, including contacts with President Trump, and agreed to stay in touch,’ the Ukrainian president wrote.
Deputy Spokesperson for the US State Department Tommy Piggott also emphasised at a briefing on 7 August that the US is in constant communication with its partners in Europe, including Ukraine. Piggott also noted that President Trump wants European partners to become more active on this issue in many areas.
At the same time, Pigott avoided answering the question of whether the US will implement its plans to impose sanctions and tariffs against Russia and its trading partners on 8 August, when President Trump's ultimatum against Russia expires. ‘There are many assumptions here, and I will not speculate on them,’ he said.
Negotiations next week?
'Suspilne' claims that the White House is working on organising a trilateral meeting between the leaders of the United States, Russia and Ukraine.
They hope to hold it as early as next week.
The location of the potential summit has not yet been specified.
The White House promises to announce the details of the meeting or meetings, if they are separate, ‘at the appropriate time.’