Putin: UAE possible venue for meeting with Trump

Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that the United Arab Emirates is one of the possible locations for his meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Putin made the announcement in the Kremlin after a meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, president of the UAE.

A Kremlin official previously said that the Trump-Putin meeting could take place next week, but the date has not yet been confirmed.

It would be the first US-Russia summit since 2021, when President Joseph Biden met with Putin in Geneva.

The meeting would be a significant milestone in Trump's efforts to end Russia's war in Ukraine, although there is no guarantee it would stop the fighting, as there is a deep divide between Moscow and Kiev over the terms they require for peace.

Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said the summit could take place next week at a location that has already been "in principle" determined.

He dismissed the possibility of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joining the summit, which, according to the White House, Trump is willing to consider.

"We propose, first of all, to focus on preparing for a bilateral meeting with Trump and we believe that the most important thing is for that meeting to be successful and productive," Ushakov said.

It is unclear how the meeting announcement will affect Trump's deadline for Russia to halt the fighting by Friday or face severe economic sanctions.

Western officials have repeatedly claimed that Putin is stalling peace talks to allow Russian forces to seize more Ukrainian territory.

Putin has not offered any concessions and will only accept a solution on his own terms.

A meeting between Putin and Trump about the war would be a departure from the Biden administration's "nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine" policy, which is a key demand of Kiev.

Zelensky said he plans to hold talks with European leaders today. He said on Telegram that European countries must be involved in finding a solution, because the war is on their continent.

A ceasefire and long-term security guarantees are priorities in potential negotiations with Russia, he said on social media. Key aspects to be addressed, Zelensky said, are securing a ceasefire, deciding on the format of the summit, and providing assurances for Ukraine's future protection from invasion.

A new Gallup poll released today found that Ukrainians increasingly want a solution that would end the fight against the Russian invasion. The enthusiasm for a negotiated agreement on this is a profound reversal from 2022, when Gallup found that about three-quarters of Ukrainians wanted to continue the fight until victory.

Most Ukrainians do not expect lasting peace anytime soon, the poll found. Only about a quarter say it is "very" or "somewhat" likely that active fighting will end in the next 12 months, while about seven in 10 think it is "somewhat" or "very unlikely" that active fighting will end in the next year.