Trump proposes historic trilateral: Will Putin agree to a meeting with Zelenskyy?

US President Donald Trump, who has styled himself as a global peacemaker since entering the White House, is now pushing for what could be the defining moment of his second term — a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

Trump held talks with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodomyr Zelenskyy separately last week. He is now hoping to bring both the presidents together in a single frame for a historic photo-op and an opportunity to facilitate direct negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

Yet the question dogging the world remains unanswered: Will Putin agree to such a meeting?

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov remained guarded about the proposed trilateral when asked about if there was a possibility of Putin and Zelenskyy holding direct talks: “We do not refuse any forms of work – neither bilateral nor trilateral. Any contacts involving top officials must be prepared with the utmost care.”

According to a report in CNN, Putin is unlikely to agree to such a meeting after pursuing an exhausting war in Ukraine for nearly three-and-a-half years.

Orysia Lutsevich, the director of Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia program, told CNN that if Putin sits down with Zelenskyy, he will have to "accept the failure of sitting down with a president he considers a joke from a country that doesn’t exist”.

She added that Putin will find it hard to justify such a meeting to the people of Russia, especially after the state media has likened Zelenskyy to a Nazi and described Ukraine as a "puppet state of the West".

The CNN report noted how Russia has always questioned the legitimacy of the Ukrainian leader and has called for fresh elections in the country before any peace deal can be signed. Moreover, neither Putin nor any other Russian official even refers to Zelenskyy by his name.

Tatiana Stanovaya, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told CNN that Putin does not see a meeting with Zelenskyy as crucial since he views the war as a confrontation with the West rather than Ukraine.

However, he could agree if he believed it would succeed. For that, Zelensky would need to discuss Russia’s key demands such as ceding territory still under Ukrainian control, which he has so far ruled out. However, Putin may see Trump as a catalyst who may force Zelenskyy to change his position.

Stanovaya added that Putin will not risk an "ambush" by holding direct talks with the Ukrainian leader only to have his demands rejected.

Trump himself is not sure whether he will be able to bring the two leaders together. After asserting that arrangements are being made for a trilateral, Trump later said that he has "sort of set it up with Putin and Zelensky."

"They’re the ones that have to call the shots. We’re, we’re 7,000 miles away,” he told Fox News, signalling that the onus still lies with the two presidents.