Trump said Zelensky and Putin are "getting along pretty well"

US President Donald Trump has said that Ukrainian and Russian leaders Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin "get along better than expected" and this was the reason for his initiative to organise their bilateral meeting. About this the American leader told in a telephone interview with the TV channel Fox News.

Trump emphasised that between Zelensky and Putin previously had a "huge dislike", but he was surprised that "now their relationship is doing a little better" than he had anticipated. The White House head added that the current situation "is the result of the actions of an administration that didn't realise anything".

In my opinion, they're doing fine. I'm not saying that they will ever become best friends, but they're doing pretty well. So we agreed to have a meeting. You could say that I organised it with Putin and Zelensky. And, you know, they are the ones who have to make decisions, not us, because we are 7000 miles away from them," noted Trump.

We will remind, on 18 August, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the White house for talks with Donald Trump. European leaders also arrived in Washington.

After talks with Zelensky, the American President met with representatives of European countries and held a telephone conversation with the head of the Kremlin. According to him, preparations for the meeting between Zelensky and Putin have begun.

As agreed by the USA and its European allies, a trilateral summit with the participation of Ukraine, the USA and Russia will be held in Europe, while a possible bilateral meeting between Zelensky and Putin may take place in Budapest.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that such a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders could take place within the next two weeks.