If the Putin Zellinski’s summit occurs, where can it be?

It seems that the ambitious plans of a bilateral summit between Volodimir Zellinsky in Ukraine and Russia Vladimir Putin are parked, just days after Donald Trump expressed its confidence that such a meeting could happen within weeks.

Geneva and Vienna sites were launched to Budapest or Istanbul as possible places. Putin and Zellinski have not been in the same room since 2019, three years before Russia launched a large -scale invasion of Ukraine.

The US president said he “started arrangements” for the summit, indicating that he believes Putin approved him on Monday.

This may be an optimistic reading of the conversation.

Almost simultaneously, Kremlin shared a more mysterious version of the stock exchange. This may mean that the ministers, instead of the envoys, have discussed “the possibility of raising the level of actors” – and this simply means that, instead of the envoys, they may participate.

German counselor Friedrich Mirz said the meeting could happen “during the next two weeks.” But he warned, saying: “We do not know whether the Russian president will get the courage to attend such a summit” and pushed Putin to be “convincing.”

Trump mentioned the “cruel” situation for Russia, should Putin not cooperate in the peace process, but he refused to be more specific.

Now, with the death of the diplomatic storm, it seems that the possibility of a meeting between Putin and Zelinski is decreasing.

On the surface, Moscow appears to be open to participate in bilateral conversations between presidents. In fact, although the pre -conditions attached to a meeting will definitely prove unacceptable to the Ukrainian side.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this week that Putin was ready to meet Zelinski that all issues that require consideration “at the highest level” were set. The Kremlin used this mysterious language that is uncompromising in the past to resist the Ukrainian proposals for a bilateral meeting.

Last week, Trump Steve Witkev’s envoy said Russia had accepted security guarantees to Ukraine, describing it as a “very important step.”

But now it seems that the relevant guarantees will be designed, like those who were first involved in Moscow and rejected by Kiev in 2022, which will witness that Russia joins a group of countries that exercise the force of vetoing military intervention in defending Ukraine.

This proposal will also witness a ban that Western forces in Ukraine are concentrated, which effectively leaves it isolation in a new Russian invasion. Lavrov said on Thursday that any other security framework would be “a outsbohydrate outlook at all.”

Meanwhile, Zelinski said that any meeting with Putin will need to come after Kiev’s allies agreed to security guarantees – which there is no doubt that it involves supporting Western forces and excluding Russia, which makes it the type that Moscow will never accept.

With your survival, Russia or Ukraine seems ready to budge from its long sites – each of which accuses the other of undermining efforts to reach a peace agreement.

The possibility of Putin Zelinski’s summit may appear at the present time remotely, but this has not stopped speculation about where it might happen.

In the wake of the diplomatic frenzy that followed the talks at the White House, Budapest was mentioned as a site for a possible meeting and the Americans were said to support them.

“They can come to Hungary at any time.” “Give us a pre -hour notice, and we are ready to ensure fair, decent, safe, and equal conditions for all in Hungary.”

But not everyone sees the Hungarian capital a sufficient neutral land. Prime Minister Victor Urban is one of the few European leaders who have maintained relations with Putin. He also banned Ukraine funding and pledged to Ukrainian membership to the European Union.

“Let’s be honest, Budapest did not support us,” Zelinski said on Thursday. “I do not say that Urban’s policy was against Ukraine, but it was against Ukraine’s support,” he told reporters, adding that holding talks in Budapest would be a “challenge.”

On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted to X that he opposed Budapest hosting talks. The city was the site of the 1994 summit, which led to Kiev surrendering its share of the Soviet nuclear arsenal in exchange for Russian security assurances. This later became meaningless by Moscow’s illegal inclusion of 2014 of the Crimea and its widely invaded 2022.

“Maybe I am a mythical, but this time I will try to find another place,” Tusk mocked.

Emmanuel Macron from France has sparked the possibility of the summit in Switzerland-a military, neutral country with a long history of hosting high-risk talks. Zelensky also carried out by Vienna, the headquarters of many international organizations.

In 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a note of Putin claiming war crimes in Ukraine, but Switzerland and Austria – both of them signed the International Criminal Court – said it would give immunity to the Russian president if it came to peace talks.

Türkiye was also launched as an option.

There is a precedent, as Istanbul has already hosted three rounds of talks at the level of the direct delegation between Ukraine and Russia since April, although it has failed in any useful progress towards a ceasefire behind an agreement to exchange prisoners.

The Vatican Ukraine and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also mentioned as possible sites. The Vatican has long placed a suitable place, while Saudi Arabia has previously mediated the exchange of prisoners between Kiev and Moscow.

Away from high -level diplomacy, the war does not show any sign of abandonment.

On Thursday, Ukraine said that its armed forces struck an oil refinery in the Russian region of Rostov, which borders the eastern regions of Ukraine in Donbas.

Meanwhile, Russia launched the largest wave of strikes on Ukraine for weeks, killing one person and wounding many.

“There is no indication from Moscow that they will really participate in meaningful negotiations and end this war,” Zelinski said on social media. “There is needed to pressure.”