Trump says plans to meet Putin in Saudi Arabia

US President Donald Trump said that he plans to meet with Russian head of state Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia. This was reported by CBS News on February 12.

At the same time, as indicated by the American leader, the meeting has not yet been scheduled. Also Trump said that the meeting may be attended by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.

In addition, the President of the United States said that he had not "committed to go to Ukraine". According to him, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent traveled to Ukraine to make sure Washington would "get the money back".

Road to Trump: US president prepares for first international talks

The U.S. leader's interlocutors will remain traditional

Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Trump discussed many topics in a telephone conversation, such as the exchange of Russian and US citizens, the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict and the situation in the Middle East. The two presidents agreed that it is possible to achieve long-term peace in Ukraine only through peaceful negotiations. The Russian leader in his conversation with his US counterpart emphasized that the root causes of the conflict should be eliminated.

Trump, in turn, shared that he is united with Putin in the opinion that Washington and Moscow can get great benefits from working together. The American leader called the conversation productive and expressed hope that the dialog on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict will be successful.

The US president gave an interview to Fox News on February 11, where he said that his team had close contacts with representatives of Russia and Ukraine, which helped achieve significant progress in working toward a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian crisis.

Putin has repeatedly reminded that Russia has never given up on peace talks, but they should be conducted on the basis of the provisions agreed upon in Istanbul, not on the basis of "ephemeral demands."

The last round of talks between Russia and Ukraine took place in Istanbul on March 29, 2022. They lasted about three hours. Later, Kiev officially refused contacts with Moscow. On October 4, 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (his term of office expired on May 20, 2024) enforced the decision of the country's National Security and Defense Council on the impossibility of holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.