US President Donald Trump has invested in a diplomatic marathon in recent days, laying the foundations for a possible tripartite meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski.

However, despite successive contacts with delegations from both countries, as well as European leaders, the gap remains: Putin’s constant demands are still far from the conditions set by Zelenski and his European allies.

Nevertheless, after the completion of official talks with the Ukrainian president and European leaders on Monday, and while the heads of state were still for dinner at the White House, Donald Trump announced through social networks that he was organizing a bilateral meeting between Zelenski.

If the trilateral talks take place, they could be the beginning of serious negotiations to end the multiannual war, something Trump has promised to succeed since he took over in January. However, he still has a long way to go in front of him to organize such a conference, starting with both leaders to the negotiating table.

Five critical questions in view of the trilateral:

Will Putin really accept to meet Zelensky?

Trump’s big plan to meet directly between the two opponents depends on Putin’s will to sit face to face with his Ukrainian counterpart. However, this cannot be considered possible.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday in Russian state media that every meeting should be “step by step, gradually, starting at the level of experts and going through all the necessary stages”, a line that the Kremlin has used in the past.

However, Lavrov did not fully exclude such a meeting, saying that Putin would not necessarily refuse to attend either a bilateral or a trilateral session.

This is not the first time the Kremlin has implied the possibility of a Putin-Chalensky conference to delay substantial peace talks while continuing attacks on Ukraine. Although Putin had proposed a meeting with Zelenski in May, he eventually sent a delegation instead of attending himself, as the Ukrainian president had set the ceasefire as a prerequisite for the negotiations.

What is the distribution of security commitments between Europe and the US?

According to NATO Secretary -General Mark Rutte, the basic “cut” that emerged from Monday’s meeting was Donald Trump’s willingness to commit to security guarantees for Ukraine, which, according to him, showed Putin. However, it remains unclear exactly how American participation could be formed.

During a telephone intervention on the “Fox and Friends” show Tuesday, Donald Trump said the European allies would “assume the main burden” of security commitments and assured that the US would not send land forces to Ukraine. Instead, he said that “two or three countries”, and in particular France, Germany and the United Kingdom, are likely to have troops.

However, the US could contribute in other ways, including air support, which Trump also reported to Fox. A senior official told Politico this week that “I don’t think there is a red line” for the possible US role in long -term peacekeeping missions.

Where could the trilateral be done?

The White House is in the location selection process for the possible tripartite conference if it is finally held.

The list of options is not great. Due to the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Putin for his alleged role in kidnapping children from Ukraine during the war, there is a limitation on the number of countries that the Russian president may visit without the risk of arrest.

Switzerland would provide Putin “immunity” if he visited the country for peace talks, the Swiss Foreign Minister said Tuesday. French President Emmanuel Macron proposed Geneva as a possible place, while Putin pressed the meeting in Moscow. However, another site seems to be at the top of White House preferences.

According to Politico, the US Secret Service is drawing up plans to take place in Budapest, Hungary, although decisions have not yet been finalized.

A meeting in Budapest would make Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, a close ally of Trump, host of this critical meeting. However, it would also refer to a painful historical déjà vu for Ukraine: after the 1994 Memorandum of Budapest, when the allies promised to protect the country’s territorial integrity in exchange for the abandonment of its nuclear weapons, the binding of its nuclear weapons, as its nuclear weapons were abandoned.

Are the territorial concessions on Trump still on the table?

Perhaps the biggest obstacle on the way to a possible trilateral: Putin’s demands for territorial concessions from Ukraine.

Trump has implied that he is open to what he himself has called a “land exchange”, which would mean that Russia would abandon part of the Ukrainian territories he has occupied during the war, but would maintain other areas, including parts of Donbas.

Putin has made it clear that he will not even consider ending the war without a successful territorial conquest. On the other hand, Zelenski has no intention of granting territories for a peace agreement.

According to German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz, who attended the White House meeting on Monday, the issue of territories was not raised in the discussions of the day, essentially postponing the issue for the moment when Zelenski and Putin will meet face -to -face.

However, any prerequisite for territorial concessions in view of a hypothetical tripartite could probably cancel Zelenski’s participation.

Will Trump change side again?

Monday’s meeting with Zelenski and a group of European leaders gave the impression that the US president had returned to the Ukraine camp. There is no guarantee, however, that it will remain there.

Trump has devoted much of his tenure so far by praising Putin, publicly attacking Zelenski and interrupting or re -launching the mission of weapons to Ukraine who is broken by the war. Eventually, he was tired of the lack of serious involvement of the Russian president in peace talks and expressed mistrust of his intentions.

However, the US president was again persuaded by Putin after their meeting on Friday, for which he laid a red carpet, adopting the Russian leader’s demands to stop any discussion of a ceasefire in favor of the long -term peace negotiations, as well as the bastard.

Although Trump’s support for Ukraine appeared to come back after Monday’s meeting, Putin could re -pull him into the Kremlin’s sphere of influence, leaving possibly Europe and Ukraine aside.