US, Russia to Hold High-Level Meeting in Munich

By Staff, Agencies

US President Donald Trump announced that “high-level” representatives will meet their Russian counterparts at the Munich Security Conference on Friday to discuss a resolution to the Ukraine conflict.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart spoke for nearly 90 minutes by phone on Wednesday, marking the first known direct interaction between the Russian and US heads of state since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.

Trump told journalists at the White House on Thursday, that the phone call had paved the way for further direct contacts between American and Russian officials.

The US leader added that “Ukraine is also invited, by the way,” but did not specify the format of the meeting or clarify whether it would be a three-way dialogue or a series of bilateral talks.

“Not sure exactly who’s going to be there from any country, but high-level people from Russia, from Ukraine, and from the United States,” he went on saying.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier on Thursday that the fact that both presidents had expressed a willingness to engage in dialogue was a “very important achievement” that has “set in motion an apparatus of aides, ministries and so on, that will now gradually begin dialogue and prepare the next contacts.”

“Now that the leaders have demonstrated political will and provided their aides with the necessary instructions to initiate communication, we ask for a bit of patience. These discussions need time to gain momentum,” Peskov said.