MINSK: In an interview with the US magazine Time, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reaffirmed his country’s readiness to organiz...
MINSK: In an interview with the US magazine Time, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reaffirmed his country’s readiness to organize trilateral negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin, his US counterpart Donald Trump, and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, BelTA news agency reported on Friday.
"Let’s make up our minds in advance. For instance: the hero city of Minsk, Istanbul, Geneva. It has been decided," Lukashenko said. "This meeting will take place in a month. We can discuss American-Russian relations on the first day, for instance."
"On the second day, if we reach an agreement on some draft document, we will invite Zelensky, Lukashenko <…> [and others]. It will look proper," the Belarusian president continued.
According to Lukashenko, Putin will be pleased to meet for negotiations in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, and the American leader will be satisfied with the venue as well.
"It is necessary to prepare this visit. If you want, I can handle it," the Belarusian president continued. "The American side, the Russian side."
"I am ready to undertake it and prepare this meeting. For the sake of peace. So, let’s start preparing it. You will see how Zelensky will act. He will be stubborn and will absolutely oppose it!" Lukashenko added.
According to Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov’s previous statements, Moscow "is amenable" to the US proposal to hold a personal meeting between Putin and Trump.
The Kremlin aide told journalists on August 7 that an agreement on the planning of such a meeting had indeed been reached with American colleagues and both sides are currently engaged in "detailed preparations" for this meeting.
According to Ushakov’s previous statements, the meeting is tentatively being planned for next week: "But the parties are initiating preparations for this important meeting directly, and it is difficult to say how many days the preparation will take."
The venue of the meeting between Putin and Trump has been agreed, and the Kremlin will inform about it "a little later," the Russian presidential aide also stated.
On August 6, Putin received US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin. After the meeting, Ushakov said that Witkoff had received some signals on the Ukrainian issue, and in turn, reciprocal signals had been received from US President Donald Trump.
A White House official told reporters on Wednesday that the meeting between Putin and Witkoff, in the opinion of the Washington administration, went well, and Russia demonstrated interest in continuing cooperation with the United States.
Germany’s Bild later reported that Trump held a telephone call with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz informing him that "the conversation between Witkoff and Putin was more productive than expected."
The meeting between Putin and Witkoff was also attended by Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Special Presidential Envoy for Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries.
Witkoff arrived in Moscow at about 7:00 a.m. Moscow time (4:00 a.m. GMT) on Wednesday, where he was met at Vnukovo Airport by Dmitriev. About an hour later, the two took a walk through Zaryadye Park in central Moscow.
It marked Witkoff’s fifth visit to Russia since the beginning of the year. His most recent trip to Moscow took place on April 25, following an earlier visit to St. Petersburg on April 11. On both occasions, he held meetings with President Putin.
Earlier, US President Trump announced that he could impose new sanctions on Russia on August 9 unless an agreement was reached on resolving the Ukraine crisis. He added, however, that Russia seemed "to be pretty good at avoiding sanctions." When asked if there was anything Russia could do to escape sanctions, the US leader said that it would require "a deal where people stop getting killed."
On July 14, Trump announced a 50-day deadline for an agreement on resolving the Ukraine conflict, adding that if no deal was reached, he would impose 100% tariffs on Moscow and its trading partners.
On July 29, the US leader said he was reducing the deadline to 10 days. On August 5, Trump noted that the US would decide later whether to impose the restrictions. According to Trump, Washington’s further steps would depend on the outcome of his special envoy Steve Witkoff’s talks in Moscow.
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