US President Donald Trump intends to meet face to face with Russian President Vladimir Putin as early as next week, the New York Times reports, citing its sources.
According to these sources, Trump presented the plan to European leaders in a phone call with them.
The US president's idea is that the meeting with Putin should be followed by a trilateral meeting between Putin, himself, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
As the New York Times writes, "only these three people will be at the meeting," and there will be no "European colleagues" present.
European leaders, who were trying to be a coordinating factor in the meetings with the goal of ending the Russian-Ukrainian war, "appeared to have accepted what Trump told them," the respected American newspaper adds, citing one of its sources.
It is not clear whether Zelensky and Putin agreed with the plan described by Trump.
However, the newspaper claims that the Ukrainian president attended the White House chief's meeting with European leaders.
The Russia-Ukraine war began in 2022 with a Russian invasion during the administration of Democratic US President Joseph Biden.
The Biden administration supported Ukraine's efforts to defend itself from Russian invasion and reclaim occupied territories with abundant military aid.
The new, Republican US President Donald Trump promised during his presidential campaign to stop the war between the two countries.
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