A meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been agreed, Kremlin has said, according to foreign media. If the meeting takes place, it will be their first such engagement in Trump’s second stint. 

BREAKING: A meeting between Putin and Trump has been agreed, the Kremlin says. It would be their first since Trump’s return to office. https://t.co/wVyNWeGhna

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 7, 2025

The news comes at a time when the Trump 2.0 administration is preparing secondary sanctions to pressure Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

The last time an American president met their Russian counterpart was in 2021, when Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva. That was months before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy have not met since late 2019.

On Wednesday, Trump said that he intended to engage in a meeting with Putin. “There’s a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon,” he said, according to foreign media. 

A White House official was learned to have said that the Russian side intended to meet with Trump and the POTUS was open to meeting both Putin and Zelenskyy. 

Meanwhile, a deadline set by Trump for Russia to agree to peace or face fresh sanctions ends this week. Trump had threatened to impose heavy tariffs on countries that buy Russian exports, including oil.

On Wednesday, Trump doubled an existing 25 per cent duty on the import of Indian goods into the US. That move followed his strong criticism of India’s oil trade with Russia.

The US president also warned of additional duties on China.

“We did it with India. We’re doing it probably with a couple of others. One of them could be China,” said Trump, whose aggressive tariff moves have kept investors across the globe on their toes.