MOSCOW
A summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could take place only to finalize agreements on a settlement of the Ukraine conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
Commenting on media reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe proposed such a meeting during his visit to Moscow last week, Peskov told Russian broadcaster VGTRK that the possibility of a trilateral summit had been under discussion for some time.
“Agreements are not a primitive deal. It is a complex settlement process consisting of a huge number of details,” he said.
Peskov said it would be “absolutely useless” for the three presidents to meet simply to discuss the details of a potential settlement, arguing that such a summit should instead be aimed at “finalizing the agreements.”
He also accused Kyiv of being unwilling to engage in “real settlement” efforts.
US media outlet Axios earlier reported that Ratcliffe had discussed the possibility of a meeting between Putin, Trump and Zelenskyy during his visit to Moscow.
The Kremlin has previously said a trilateral meeting would require substantial preparatory work and should follow progress in negotiations.
Separately, Peskov said Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan would discuss Armenia’s planned referendum on its future relationship with the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union during their visit to Bishkek on Aug. 31-Sept. 1.
Putin would use the meeting to reiterate Moscow’s arguments on the issue, Peskov added.
