The following are the Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Yuri Ushakov’s comments on the meeting between Vladimir Putin and the Special Envoy of the President of the United States S.By Witkoff on August 7th, 2025
Ushakov: The meeting was businesslike and constructive, and both sides should be satisfied with the outcome of the conversation. Proposals for further joint work in the context of resolving the Ukrainian crisis are being considered.
It was again noted that Russian-American relations can be rebuilt according to a completely different, mutually beneficial scenario, significantly different from how they have developed in recent years.
As for Ukrainian affairs directly, at the suggestion of the American side, an agreement was agreed in principle to hold a bilateral summit in the coming days, that is, a meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Now, together with our American colleagues, we are starting to work out the specific parameters of this meeting and its venue. The venue was also agreed upon in principle, and we will inform you about it later.
As for the option of a trilateral meeting, which was discussed in Washington yesterday for some reason, this option was simply mentioned by the American representative during the meeting in the Kremlin. But this option was not specifically discussed. The Russian side did not comment on this whatsoever or in any way. First of all, we propose to focus on the preparation of a bilateral meeting with Donald Trump, and we consider it important that this meeting be successful and productive.
It is also well known that yesterday, Mr. Trump, immediately after receiving Mr. Witkoff’s report, phoned a number of leading European partners and talked with them about this matter. I would like to note that we have already started informing our closest partners and friends about the issues discussed during the aforementioned meeting with Witkoff, using appropriate channels.
A guideline [for holding the meeting] was outlined for next week, but the parties are starting preparations for this important meeting directly, and it is difficult to say how many days the preparation will take.
But, the option of holding a meeting within the next week has been considered, and we are quite positive about this option.