Russia, U.S. agree on Putin-Trump meeting in coming days - Russian presidential aide

MOSCOW. Aug 7 (Interfax) - An agreement on holding a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in the coming days has been coordinated, and the sides are working on it, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said.

"At the proposal of the U.S. side, it has been agreed in general to hold a bilateral summit, it means a meeting of President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, in the coming days," Ushakov said.

"We are starting practical preparations together with U.S. counterparts," he said.

Ushakov said that next week has been mentioned as a guideline for the meeting.

Journalists asked him to comment on the New York Times article, which said Trump was hoping to meet with Putin next week.

"Next week has been mentioned as the guideline, however, the sides start practical preparations for the important meeting and it is hard to say how many days the preparations might take. However, we are considering the variant of meeting next week and we feel quite positive about this variant," Ushakov said.

The venue for a meeting between Putin and Trump has been agreed, and the Kremlin will announce it later, Ushakov told journalists.

"Together with American counterparts, we are now starting specific work on the parameters of this meeting and its venue," Ushakov said.

"By the way, I'd like to note that the meeting's venue has tentatively been agreed too. We will announce it a little later," he said.

U.S. Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff mentioned the possibility of a trilateral meeting of Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky at the meeting in the Kremlin, however, Moscow left it without comment and proposed focusing on preparations for a bilateral summit, Ushakov told journalists.

"Speaking of the trilateral meeting option, which for some reason was spoken about in Washington yesterday, this possibility was simply mentioned by the U.S. representative during the meeting in the Kremlin. This variant was not discussed specifically. The Russian side left this variant completely, absolutely without comment," Ushakov said.

"We propose focusing on preparations for a bilateral meeting with Trump in the first turn and prioritize the effort towards making this meeting successful and productive," he said.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that Trump was ready to meet with Putin and Zelensky.

"The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the president is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelensky," Western media quoted Leavitt as saying.

Meanwhile, CNN said on Wednesday, citing an unnamed White House official, that it would not be easy to organize a meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders next week.

The New York Times, in turn, reported citing its sources that Trump plans to organize a meeting with Putin next week.

"President Trump intends to meet in person with President Vladimir Putin of Russia as soon as next week, and he plans to follow up shortly afterward with a meeting between himself, Mr. Putin and President Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the plan," the newspaper said.

"Mr. Trump disclosed his plans on Wednesday in a call with European leaders [...], the people said. The meetings would include only the three men, and would not include European counterparts," it said.

Trump himself said on Wednesday that his Special Envoy Steve Witkoff's talks with Putin were very constructive.

"My special envoy, Steve Witkoff, just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Great progress was made," Trump wrote on the X social network.

Witkoff met with Putin during his visit to Moscow on Wednesday. Putin and Witkoff discussed the Ukraine crisis and the prospects for the possible development of strategic cooperation between the U.S. and Russia, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told journalists. The meeting lasted for about three hours.