Donald Trump will only meet Vladimir Putin if the Russian president agrees to three-way peace talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky.

President Vladimir V. Putin has long said he wants to sit down with President Trump. The reason: He believes that such a meeting, rather than just progress on the battlefield, is his best chance for securing a victory in his war against Ukraine.

Trump became the first sitting US president to meet a North Korean leader when he sat down with Kim Jong-un in Singapore in June 2018. The summit was choreographed as a historic breakthrough, complete with gestures such as handshakes, flags and sweeping promises of denuclearisation.