US President Donald Trump has announced that “high-ranking” US representatives will meet with their Russian counterparts at the Munich Security Conference on Friday to discuss a solution to the Ukraine conflict.
Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart had a nearly 90-minute phone call on Wednesday, the first known direct conversation between the Russian and US leaders since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. On Thursday, Trump said the phone call had paved the way for further direct contacts between American and Russian officials.
“They will have a meeting in Munich tomorrow” Trump told journalists at the White House on Thursday. “Russia will be there with our people.”
Trump added that the Ukraine had also been invited, without specifying the format of the meeting or whether it would be a three-way dialogue or a series of bilateral talks.
“I don’t know exactly who will be there from each country, but high-ranking people from Russia, Ukraine and the United States” the US President added.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskow said on Thursday that the fact that both presidents had expressed their willingness to dialogue was a “very important achievement” which had “set in motion an apparatus of helpers, ministries and so on, that will now gradually take up the dialogue and prepare the next contacts.”
“Now that the heads of state and government have underlined their political will and their helpers with the necessary instructions to take up the talks, we ask for a bit of patience. These talks will need time to get underway” Peskow said.
The Munich Security Conference takes place from February 14 to 16 in Munich. US Vice President J.D. Vance will lead the American delegation and is likely to meet with Vladimir Zelensky. Foreign Minister Marco Rubio stated that the conference offers American representatives the opportunity to “show a broad way forward” in regards to Ukraine.
It is expected that the US envoy, Keith Kellogg, will make it clear that the US does not intend to send troops to protect Ukraine and will urge European NATO allies to increase their defense spending.
Russian representatives have not taken part in the Munich Conference since 2022 and Moscow has not confirmed or announced the composition of its delegation.
The chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, has been cautious about the announcement from Washington, stating that “we have not accredited any Russian government representatives” and “without accreditation, you won’t get in here.