President Trump said Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and special envoy Steve Witkoff are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine.

Why it matters: Putin has shown no interest in sitting down with Zelensky through 3.5 years of war. President Trump claims that's now changed, and that a presidential meeting is the key to unlocking peace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the White House said on Tuesday. Asked repeatedly whether Putin had committed to a direct meeting in the coming weeks,

President Trump had suggested a meeting between Russia and Ukraine’s leaders could be a potential next step on the path to peace. Russian state news media barely mentioned the idea.

President Trump said Tuesday that it would be “better” if Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met without him first as Trump pushes the leaders to bring an end to the more than three-year-long war in Eastern Europe.

While the White House insists President Donald Trump wants to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine as soon as possible, President Vladimir Putin has not committed to a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

President Trump seeks to broker a meeting of the two leaders to end Europe’s most destructive war in generations.

On August 18, 2025, a White House meeting seemed to pave the way for a potential summit between Russian President Vladim

The Kremlin hasn't ruled out summits but has said they could only meet in the very final stages of clinching a peace agreement.

A summit in Paris six years ago was the first and only time the two presidents ever met, flanked by French president Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s then-chancellor Angela Merkel. At the time, Putin and Zelensky were looking to hash out a ceasefire deal for war in Donbas in Ukraine’s east, where Russia-backed forces were fighting Ukrainian troops.