Putin will meet Trump, but will he meet Zelenskyy?

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, are going to meet in the coming days, the Kremlin said on Thursday, adding that the venue and location have also been decided "in principle".

The summit is slated for next week, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said, while noting that such events take time to organise and no date can be confirmed. The possible venue will be announced “a little later," according to Ushakov.

The announcement came after the US president's special envoy Steve Witkoff visited Moscow on Wednesday, where he met with Putin.

Neither the White House nor the Kremlin revealed any details of what exactly was discussed. The Kremlin released a usual statement that the discussion was "constructive" and both sides had exchanged "signals".

Trump told reporters on Wednesday he would not call it a “breakthrough” and reiterated, “I'm here to get the thing over with".

With the meeting between Trump and Putin now confirmed and expected most probably next week, will Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy be there too, and what does it mean for Trump’s ceasefire deadline for Moscow set for Friday?

Will Zelenskyy meet Putin?

Following Witkoff’s visit to Moscow, Trump said there was a "good chance" he could meet the Russian and Ukrainian leaders together in person "very soon" to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

When asked whether Zelenskyy and Putin had agreed to a three-way summit, Trump said there was "very good prospect" of that, but did not elaborate.

On Thursday, the Kremlin played down the possibility of a meeting with the Ukrainian president. “We propose, first of all, to focus on preparing a bilateral meeting with Trump, and we consider it most important that this meeting be successful and productive,” Ushakov said.

Ushakov noted the idea of a three-way summit was mentioned at talks between Trump's envoy Witkoff and Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, but said the Kremlin had left that option "without comment".

Trump and Zelenskyy had a separate call on Wednesday evening, after Witkoff’s meeting with Putin.

Ukraine’s president said the European leaders were also on the call, where the discussion was focused on what was "spelt out in Moscow" earlier on Wednesday.

“Our joint position with our partners is absolutely clear – the war must end. And it must be done honestly. Ukraine will definitely defend its independence. We all need a lasting and reliable peace. Russia must end the war that it itself started,” Zelenskyy said.

He later reiterated Kyiv’s priorities. “First – an end to the killing, and it is Russia that must agree to a ceasefire. Second – a format for leaders, so that such a meeting can lead to a truly lasting peace."

"We in Ukraine have repeatedly said that finding real solutions can be truly effective at the level of leaders. It is necessary to determine the timing for such a format and the range of issues to be addressed," Zelenskyy explained.

"Third – long-term security. This is possible together with the United States and Europe.”

It is unclear if Trump’s ceasefire deadline for Moscow set for 8 August will change should the meeting among the leaders be confirmed for next week, or if the meeting could be postponed without a ceasefire.

'We understand who calls the shots in Russia'

Zelenskyy has been offering to meet Putin almost since the very beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In May of this year, when Putin suggested that Russia and Ukraine should sit down for direct talks, Ukraine’s president promptly responded that he would travel to Istanbul himself to meet with his Russian counterpart.

Zelenskyy did go to Turkey, where he met with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but Putin was a no-show.

The Kremlin instead sent a lower-level team, including the deputy foreign affairs and defence ministers, the head of its military intelligence and the presidential aide.

Few rounds of the Istanbul talks format resulted in the largest prisoners of war exchange, but didn’t bring ceasefire any closer.

Since the talks restarted, Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine, while Kyiv intensified its calls for a meeting between the leaders.

“We understand who calls the shots in Russia, and thus Ukraine is once again offering to move beyond technical talks — not to exchange statements, but to actually meet at the level of leaders”, Zelenskyy said with most of his calls left without comments by Moscow.

But Trump's presence might change that.

Speaking from the White House on Thursday, Trump said he had put an end to several wars since his return to office in January.

“I stopped five wars in the last five months, actually, and I’d like this to be the sixth, frankly," he stated.