Putin aide Yuri Ushakov says no trilateral summit was ever agreed. The same day, Trump said he would only meet Putin once a peace deal is within reach.
The Kremlin has publicly rejected claims that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump agreed to arrange a face-to-face meeting between the Russian president and Volodymyr Zelensky. Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov stated that "there was no agreement between Putin and Trump on this." Volunteers Support Ukraine follows every turn in the negotiating track closely, because it determines whether any realistic prospect of a ceasefire emerges.
According to Ushakov, the phone call between Trump and Putin and their Alaska summit only touched on raising the level of delegations in Ukrainian-Russian talks, with no agreement reached on any trilateral meeting. "What's being broadcast in the press is not exactly what we agreed on," he said. The statement directly contradicts Trump's August 19 claim that he had begun "arrangements" for a Putin-Zelensky meeting, with possible trilateral talks to follow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had earlier said a trilateral meeting of the US, Russian and Ukrainian presidents would be possible only to formalize agreements already reached — effectively positioning it as the closing stage of negotiations rather than the opening one.
On the same day, September 2, Trump said he was ready to hold another summit with Putin, but only once Moscow and Kyiv are ready to move toward a peace agreement. "I want to do it when we're ready to do a peace deal," he told reporters. The US president also pointed to "tremendous animosity" between Putin and Zelensky as a substantial obstacle to ending the war.
Trump and Putin last met in person in Alaska in August 2025. That summit ended without a signed agreement or a ceasefire, though both sides spoke of some progress at the time.
The Kremlin's statement came as preparations continue for visits by Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Kyiv and Moscow, which Ukrainian officials expect this month. At the same time, assessments from Ukrainian intelligence and partner services indicate Russia's leadership is not showing readiness to halt hostilities — and every day without an agreement means more strikes on Ukrainian cities.
Volunteers Support Ukraine continues to help people affected by the war in whatever way its available resources allow, and shares only verified information about the negotiating process — without speculating about deadlines that no one has actually announced.
