U.S. President Donald Trump may meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky next week in New York, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sept. 16 in Tel Aviv.

World leaders will gather in New York starting Sept. 22 for the U.N.'s annual high-level session.

“He (Trump) is trying to do everything possible to bring the war to an end,” Rubio said.

“The president had multiple calls with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, multiple meetings with Zelensky, including probably next week again in New York.”

Ukraine has not commented on the possible meeting between Zelensky and Trump. The Kyiv Independent has reached out to Zelensky’s office for comment.

The possible meeting comes as Trump’s push to end Russia’s war against Ukraine stretches into its eighth month with no concrete results.

The U.S. president and Zelensky last met on Aug. 18 at the White House with European leaders, just days after Trump held his first in-office summit with Putin in Alaska.

At the time, Trump pledged to prepare direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, though the effort collapsed when Putin invited Zelensky to Moscow and rejected other venues.

Kyiv refused the proposal for talks in Moscow, and Putin later said an agreement over occupied territories was “impossible.” Zelensky has reiterated that he would not travel to Russia for negotiations but has repeatedly voiced readiness to meet Putin on neutral ground.

Despite threatening tougher measures, Trump has so far implemented only tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil, while rolling back some earlier sanctions on Russia.

Trump has tied potential new sanctions to stronger European action, criticizing the EU for continuing to buy Russian oil and gas.

Read also: Putin is trying ‘to trick the US’ and evade sanctions, Zelensky warns

From The Kyiv Independent - News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe via this RSS feed