President Trump May Meet Putin On May 9 In Moscow, Say Reports

Washington: US President Donald Trump may meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on May 9 to mark Russia's 80th victory anniversary over Nazi Germany in World War 2, reports said. Newly elected for his second term, Trump, who took initiative to end the Ukraine war by calling Putin and Zelenskyy on February 12 and asked both of them to start negotiations to end the three-year-old war, might visit Moscow to celebrate and share victory day with Putin if peace talks go forward as planned and a ceasefire agreement is reached between the two fighting sides Russia and Ukraine.

In the past one week, several key developments have taken place with respect to the Russia-Ukraine war and Washington-Moscow relations. After Trump's call to both his counterparts, US and Russian officials met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. They discussed the initial phase of how the negotiation talks would go forward, beginning the ground work. Zelenskyy was also present in middle east during this time but he didn't participate in talks. US and Russian officials, besides Ukraine, also discussed about resuming their bilateral ties.

Reports said that Trump and Putin during their February 12 call had mutually agreed upon meeting in person as soon as it could be.

Amid this, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, when was asked about Trump-Putin's meeting, told reporters that the President would be happy to welcome his American counterpart in Moscow on May 9. However, Peskov did not confirm anything about the scheduled of the meeting.

Trump, if travels to Moscow on May 9, will not be the first US President to do so. Earlier in 1995, President Clinton had travelled to Moscow when he met Russian counterpart Boris Yeltsin on May 9.

Russia commemorates May 9 as victory day over Nazi Germany in World War 2 when a united Soviet Union including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other nations defeated Nazi Germany in 1945. The Soviet Union lost more than 27 million people, largest by any country as they call it the ‘Great Patriotic War’.

US-Russia begin talks to rebuild bilateral relation, end Ukraine war  

Pushed by Donald Trump after his negotiation bid to end three-year-old Ukraine war, the US President last week held a lengthy conversation with Russian counterpart during which both agreed to ‘start immediately’ peace talks and end the war. Trump later had similar conversation with Zelenskyy also who too echoed the same as his two other counterparts.

Building upon his telephonic conversations with Putin, US and Russian officials recently met in Saudi Arabia's Riyadh where they discussed the Ukraine war and resuming bilateral ties between both the countries.

Zelenskyy started war with Russia, says Trump

Ever since the first round of pre-negotiation talks took place in Riyadh, Trump has been hitting out at Zelenskyy by holding him responsible for the war. 

Trump made several remarks in the past few days and came down hard on Ukrainian President accusing him of starting the war with Russia at the first place, a conflict he could have never won. The US President said that Zelenskyy should have struck a negotiation deal with Putin, even before the war had started.

Not just this, Trump called Zelenskyy a comedian and swindler who tricked America under the Joe Biden administration to spend billions of dollars into a war which couldn't be one and should not have started at all.

Trump said Zelenskyy's attitude towards the peace talks is frustrating and asked the Ukrainian President to move fast otherwise he wouldn't have a country to run. 

Most recently, Trump blasted Zelenskyy saying he's not important to negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Zelenskyy, who is accused by Trump of trying to delay the peace efforts, has been saying that he wouldn't agree to a deal if everything were to happen according to Putin. Zelenskyy has demanded security guarantees for his country from United States as part of the deal, asked Europe that it was now time for the continent to build its own forces and even accused Donald Trump of living in Russian disinformation space.