Trump says he'll meet Putin only when Russia and Ukraine are ready to sign a peace deal
On September 2, US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he is ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately, but wants the meeting to happen only when Russia and Ukraine are ready to conclude a peace agreement. Trump cited personal animosity between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin as the main obstacle to a deal, and suggested the war's end is "pretty close."
Key points
- Trump made the remarks while speaking with journalists at the White House on September 2.
- He said he could meet Putin "immediately" but wants to wait until a peace deal is ready.
- Trump cited "enormous enmity" between Zelensky and Putin as a key obstacle to ending the war.
- He repeated a claim, without sourcing, that an average of about 25,000 soldiers die each month in the war.
- The previous Trump-Putin summit was held in Anchorage, Alaska, in August 2025.
- CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to Moscow around August 25 and proposed a Trump-Zelensky-Putin trilateral; Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said such a meeting could take place "only to finalize agreements."
- On August 31, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov at the G20 and reportedly promoted a Trump-proposed 28-point settlement plan.
Why it matters
Trump's statement sets a public precondition for any new direct summit with Putin, tying it to concrete movement toward a peace agreement rather than to ongoing shuttle diplomacy. By foregrounding personal hostility between Zelensky and Putin as the main obstacle, Trump frames the difficulty as one of interpersonal dynamics rather than Russia's refusal to end its invasion. The remarks also come amid a multi-track US push — including CIA Director John Ratcliffe's late-August trip to Moscow and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's G20 meeting with Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov — that has produced, by Trump's account, a reported 28-point settlement plan. Trump's suggestion that the war's end is "pretty close" raises expectations of a near-term diplomatic outcome that may not be matched on the ground.
What happened
Speaking with reporters at the White House on September 2, President Donald Trump said he is ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately but prefers to wait until Russia and Ukraine are ready to conclude a peace agreement. Trump said Putin would agree to a meeting if Trump wanted one, but he wants the meeting only once a peace deal is in place. He described the United States as wanting good relations with Russia, Ukraine, and "everyone," and called that "good for business." Trump cited personal hostility between Zelensky and Putin as a key obstacle, urged both leaders to stop what he called a "stupid war," and repeated, without sourcing, a claim that about 25,000 soldiers die in the war each month. He said he has stopped eight wars and described the end of the Russia-Ukraine war as "pretty close."
Where reporting differs
US and Russian accounts diverge on the focus of CIA Director John Ratcliffe's late-August trip to Moscow. The New York Times reported that Ratcliffe shared a pessimistic assessment of the war's course and urged Russia to make a deal before its military and economic position worsens. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's Office of the President, said the war in Ukraine was not the main topic of the visit. The Wall Street Journal suggested the trip may also have carried a warning to Putin tied to Russian mobilization preparations and a possible test of NATO resolve.
Background
The previous Trump-Putin summit was held in Anchorage, Alaska, in August 2025. Russian officials have since invoked an unspecified "spirit of Anchorage" or "understanding"; commentators have suggested it may have involved freezing the conflict and transferring all of Donbas to Russia, a claim Trump has denied, and Ukraine has refused any such demand. CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to Moscow around August 25 and proposed a Trump-Zelensky-Putin trilateral; Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said such a meeting could happen "only to finalize agreements," and the Russian outlet Agentstvo reported that Putin declined to meet Ratcliffe once he learned the message urged quickly ending the war. On August 31, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov on the G20 sidelines — Siluanov's first such attendance since the start of the full-scale war — and reportedly promoted a Trump-proposed 28-point settlement plan while making clear the US would not agree to economic concessions until the war ends.