Trump pushes Putin-Zelensky meeting as Kremlin’s response remains vague

After Monday’s White House meeting between White House President Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, the question remains: Is Russian President Vladimir Putin ready to sit in person with Ukrainian leaders?

Trump said he personally called Putin to start the meeting. The Kremlin, by contrast, responded more ambiguously, acknowledging that the idea surfaced but refused to confirm whether Moscow would accept it.

For Putin, any such encounter would bring more theater weight than diplomacy. “Putin doesn’t want to meet Zelensky because he doesn’t even recognize Ukraine’s sovereignty,” Ivana Stradner, a Russian expert at the Democratic Defense Foundation, told Fox News Digital. “If Trump promotes him, he can be in the room with Zelensky because Putin wants to prove that Russia is the same as the United States…We make him happy to provide his population with what is called Russian greatness.”

Ambassador Kurt Volker Special envoy to Ukraine In the first Trump administration, it is unlikely that the Kremlin has not made concessions. “Putin is unlikely to accept such a meeting if the prerequisites are not met,” he said.

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These conditions are strong. The Kremlin has rejected NATO-style Ukrainian security assurances, while Zelenskyy and European leaders have ruled out territory. Straner warned Putin’s strategy is to test the determination of the West. “End of the day, Putin will challenge Western soldiers,” Stradner said. “I doubt what happened today, any Western country except the Baltic Sea or Poland would be willing to send children to Ukraine to die. Putin knows that.”

She added that the Russian leader has been bold in the past with weak responses to the West. She pointed to the 2023 conflict in Kosovo, when Serbs attacked NATO peacekeepers and injured 90 people. “What did NATO do? Nothing,” Stradner said. “That’s the first round. The second round is coming.”

However, Volker put forward a more pragmatic tone. He noted that while Putin may be pose at the negotiating table, Russia is struggling to deal with the destruction of the battlefield supply lines and the faltering economy. “The real problem will be that Russia’s supply lines are increasingly targeted by Ukraine, and the Russian economy is shaking,” Volk said. “I still hope Putin gets along with the ceasefire by the end of this year.”

Trump and Zelenskyy met at the White House on Monday. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

this White House Having tried to send Putin in, News Minister Karoline Leavitt insisted that “he” had agreed to the meeting. “Both leaders expressed willingness to sit down with each other,” she said. Despite this, analysts warned that Moscow’s words were far from binding.

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A residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, was attacked the same day as Zelenskyy on DC. (Ukraine in Kharkif region/news service of national emergency services through Reuters handout)

The Russian Foreign Minister said the summit was not impossible, but hedging “any contact involving senior officials should be prepared with great caution”. He also reiterated that the Kremlin had long demanded that Kiev retreat from law Moscow claimed to limit the rights of Russian speakers.

Maria Snegovaya, a senior researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the meeting would mark a change, but there was no breakthrough. “So far, at least in public places, there is no clear awareness,” she told Fox News Digital. “Even if it still doesn’t necessarily bring us closer to actual consent, it will also indicate that there is a willingness to not try to avoid triggering or annoying President Trump.”

Snegovaya added Putin’s calculation Rooted in caution. “In his reign for over 25 years, Putin usually avoids attacking the stronger side. He usually follows weaker parties…Georgia, Syria, Chechnya. I think he will be cautious about his willingness to pursue European allies, especially if strong revenge is promised.”

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Stradner said Putin’s “fear” about Trump’s last lifeline ended the war.

“He doesn’t trust Europe, he doesn’t respect Europe. When it comes to America, he despises America, but he is worried about Trump because Trump is an unpredictable leader, and that’s Putin’s nightmare.”