The US President Donald Trump said today he would meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodimir Zelenskiadding that this or next week the Ukrainian president is expected to come to sign the mineral agreement. At the same time, he stressed that he is expected to meet with the Russian president at some point, Vladimir Putin. He said he was willing to visit Moscow at the right time and added that he was trying to work for economic cooperation with Russia.

May 9th may be a little early for a visit to Moscow, Macron stressed during his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“We’ll see,” he replied to a question about whether Ukraine should give territories. He also noted that Putin would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Trump also said he did not see a problem with European troops to be sent to Ukraine to act as pacifists.

“NATO is good if it works properly,” he said, adding that Italy is very important while praising the leadership of Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni.

Trump refused to call Putin dictator

The US president was asked if he would describe Putin “dictator” after having previously used the word to describe Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski.

“I do not use these words lightly, we will see how everything will evolve,” Trump noted, adding that there are “chances for a very good settlement” between Ukraine and Russia.

A unsolved war between the two countries “could lead to the Third World War,” he says.

Meanwhile, Macron says they had a good discussion during G7’s telephone conference this morning and that he will discuss today with Trump about “long -term peace” in Ukraine.

Europe is willing to “intensify” defense, he adds, but “strong” American participation is needed to ensure peace in Ukraine.

Trump said the war in Ukraine may end “within a few weeks, if we are smart”

“I think the war in Ukraine can end soon, in a few weeks, if we are smart,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office.

“If we are not smart, it will continue … We don’t want that,” he said, adding: “Remember what I said, this could escalate in a third world war, and we don’t even want that.”

Trump talked about the recent telephone conversation with the Russian president, during which they agreed to launch negotiations on the end of the war in Ukraine.

Occupied by Russia territories

Trump was asked if he believed that Ukraine should grant territories in the context of any peace negotiations.

“We’ll see it,” he told reporters. “It’s a negotiation that is just starting now.”

Getting back Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, he added, “is not an easy thing”.

Trump has previously said that Ukraine could take back “some” from its territories and last week said that the occupation of Ukrainian territories from Russia means “has the papers” in the negotiations.

Trump: “I am in serious discussions with Putin about ending the war in Ukraine”

After the G7 meeting, US President Donald Trump He said earlier via a post on Truth Social that all leaders expressed their goal of the end of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Trump also said he was in serious discussions with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine and for “major economic development transactions” between the US and Russia. “The talks are going very well,” he said.

In detail, Trump’s post on Truth Social:

Today, French President Emmanuel Macron attended the Oval Office to attend the G7 Summit. The meeting was convened by Canadian Governor Justin Trinto, who has the current G7 presidency, to recognize the third anniversary of the Russian -Ukraine war – who would never have begun if I was president. Everyone expressed their goal of the end of the war and I emphasized the importance of the vital “agreement on critical minerals and rare land” between the US and Ukraine, which we hope will be signed very soon! This agreement, which is an “financial partnership”, will ensure that the American people will take back the tens of billions of dollars and the military equipment sent to Ukraine, while helping Ukraine’s economy grow as this barbaric and a wild war is coming to an end. At the same time, I am in serious discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the end of war but also on the major economic development transactions between the US and Russia. Talks are going very well!

“Russia is open to economic cooperation with the US”

Russia is open to economic cooperation with the US, said Putin’s new Special Envoy for International Economic Cooperation, responding to Trump’s statement on “major economic development transactions with Russia”.

“Russia is open to economic cooperation with the US and believes that this cooperation is the key to a more durable global economy,” said envoy Kiril Dmitryev, appointed on February 23.

Meeting of American and Russian officials tomorrow in Riyadh

It is recalled that US and Russian officials will meet in Riyadh tomorrow Tuesday, following a meeting of the two countries’ foreign ministers a week ago, a diplomatic source said today at the French Agency.

At their meeting on February 18, Marco Rubio and Sergei Lavrov agreed to create a “consultation mechanism” to resolve their differences and appoint negotiators for the war in Ukraine.

These conversations, the first at this level between the two countries after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, took place after the telephone communication of Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin who “crushed” the common front of the West and the strategy of the Russian president, which was applied after Putin’s move to invade the neighboring country.

The US president has said he will meet Putin in Saudi Arabia without a date.

According to the diplomatic source, who asked not to be named, a “meeting following a previous meeting” between US and Russia representatives will take place tomorrow Tuesday in Riyadh.

The level of representation at the meeting “will be lower (than February 18), but this (the new meeting) remains a sign of progress,” the source stressed, without giving further details.