Putin-Zelenskyy bilateral meeting unlikely to be dramatic — former Trump adviser

Former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton expressed this opinion in an interview with Antin Borkovskyi, host of the Studio West program on the Espreso TV channel.

“The latest development seems to be that there would be a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelensky, possibly followed by another meeting with Trump joining them. A bilateral meeting between the two leaders directly involved in the conflict would not, in my view, be dramatic. There would be no raised voices or walkouts. Putin would likely give a long lecture on his perception of Russian history, and Zelensky would respond with his side of the story.

They would talk for hours. Nobody would concede anything. Then there might be a trilateral meeting,” commented John Bolton.

In his opinion, we should think about the consequences, because three weeks will be spent preparing for bilateral negotiations - and no results will be achieved. Another three weeks will be spent preparing for trilateral negotiations - and again, no progress will be made. This is exactly how Putin wants to conduct negotiations. Every day, the Kremlin leader becomes less confident that Ukraine will have enough resources to successfully continue the war. Therefore, we need to focus on what really matters.

“To return to the meeting on Monday, August 18, German Chancellor Merz confirmed afterward that the subject of territory and land swaps, or however you want to call it, was not discussed. Is that because it is not important? No, it is because it is so difficult that the participants simply did not want to bring it up. Instead, they turned to something much more vague, the issue of security guarantees, because they felt there was more agreement there,” summarized the politician.

• On August 18, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived at the White House, where he was welcomed by U.S. President Donald Trump. The leaders first held a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office, after which they met with European leaders and the NATO Secretary General. The talks then continued in a different format.
• Following the talks, Trump announced that he had begun preparations for a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin.