President Donald Trump is preparing for an in-person meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as next week, according to a New York Times report confirmed by a White House official. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Moscow had asked for the encounter and that Trump "is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelenskyy." No date or venue has been finalised. Trump told European leaders earlier on Wednesday that he intends to hold a bilateral session with Putin and then convene a trilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an effort to broker an end to the three-year Russia-Ukraine war. The approach follows a three-hour discussion in Moscow between Putin and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, which both sides described as productive. The diplomatic push comes against a deadline Trump set for Russia to agree to a cease-fire by this Friday or face expanded U.S. sanctions, including possible secondary tariffs of up to 100% on nations trading with Moscow. The White House has also signalled additional curbs on Russia’s energy revenues if fighting continues. Officials cautioned that logistics for the prospective meetings remain under discussion, and the talks could still be postponed or relocated. Even so, the White House sees the back-to-back summits as the clearest opening yet for direct negotiations among the three leaders since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.