Merz: Talks between Zelenskyy and Putin should take place within 14 days – media

German Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said after a summit on Ukraine in Washington that a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin is expected to take place within the next two weeks, Der Spiegel reported on Tuesday.
Merz said that the venue for the meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy still needs to be agreed upon, and the talks need to be well prepared. He said he had no idea yet what might come of it. "In my opinion, it would be desirable, and even more so, for a ceasefire to finally come to an end in Ukraine after this meeting."
At the summit on Ukraine in Washington, where the US president and European leaders met on Monday, Trump dodged questions about the details of a peace plan for Ukraine. He interrupted his conversation with the Europeans to call Putin. The Kremlin initially did not confirm the planned meeting between Zelensky and Putin, saying only that it wanted to maintain contacts between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations.
After the phone call, Trump said that he had initiated a meeting between Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and Kremlin leader Putin.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he was preparing a meeting between Putin and Zelensky. After that, a trilateral meeting should take place, in which he will also participate.
As reported, Merz, after the conclusion of negotiations with US President Donald Trump, continues to insist on a ceasefire between Ukraine and the Russian Federation as a necessary prerequisite for further negotiations.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with the TF1 television channel, called Geneva a possible venue for a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy.
Reuters, citing an unnamed senior White House official, reported on Tuesday that the meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy could take place in Hungary.