If a meeting is held at the top of Putin-Zelenski, where can it be?

The ambitious plans for a bilateral summit between Voladimir Zelenski and Russian Vladimir Putin in Russia seem to stop, just days after Donald Trump expressed confidence that such a meeting could take place within weeks.

Location from Geneva and Vienna to Budapest or Istanbul have been ceded as possible places. Putin and Zelenski are not in the same room since 2019, three years before Russia started their full -scale invasion in Ukraine.

The US president said he had “started arrangements” for the summit, showing that he believed that Putin had agreed with him on Monday.

This may be optimistic reading of the conversation.

Almost at once, the Kremlin shared its own, more unclear version of the stock exchange. Trump and Putin had discussed “the possibility of raising the level of representatives,” said assistant Yuri Ushakov – and this can simply mean that ministers, instead of envoys, can participate in conversations.

German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz said a meeting could happen “within the next two weeks.” But he warned, “We do not know if the Russian president will have the courage to attend such a summit” and he insists that Putin be “convinced.”

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

Now, as the diplomatic vortex is dying, the likelihood of a meeting between Putin and Zelenski seems to be further diminishing.

On the surface, it seems that Moscow is open to participate in bilateral conversations between the two presidents. In reality, however, the prerequisites it attaches to a meeting will almost certainly be unacceptable to the Ukrainian country.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this week that Putin is ready to meet with Zelenski, provided that all the “questions” that require the highest level, this unclear but uncompromising language was used by the Kremlin in the past to oppose Ukrainian bilateral suggestions.

Last week, Trump’s envoy Steve Vikof said Russia had accepted security guarantees for Ukraine, calling it a “very significant step”.

But now it seems that the guarantees in question will be modeled to those who first sail from Moscow and rejected by Kiev in 2022, which will see that Russia has joined a group of countries that have a veto power for military intervention in defense of Ukraine.

This proposal will also see a ban on Western troops from being deployed in Ukraine, which effectively leaves it defenseless in the event of a fresh Russian invasion. Lavrov said on Thursday that any other security frame would be “an absolutely useless endeavor”.

In the meantime, Zelenski said that every meeting with Putin would have to come after Kiev’s allies agreed on security guarantees – which would undoubtedly include the support of the Western powers and excluded Russia, which makes it the species that Moscow will never accept.

As things are, neither Russia nor Ukraine seem to be ready to move from their long -standing positions – and each of them blames the other for undermining the efforts to achieve a peaceful deal.

The possibility of a Putin-Zelenski summit may seem remote at the moment, but this has not stopped speculation about where it can be held.

After the diplomatic rage that followed the White House talks, Budapest was mentioned as a place for a potential meeting and Americans were said to support him.

“They can come to Hungary at any time,” said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Sidzharto. “In advance let us know an hour and we are ready to guarantee fair, decent, safe and equal terms for everyone in Hungary.”

But not everyone sees the Hungarian capital as a neutral base. Prime Minister Victor Orban is one of the few European leaders who keep in touch with Putin. He has also blocked the funding for Ukraine and has promised to veto Ukrainian membership in the EU.

“Let’s be honest, Budapest did not support us,” Zelenski said on Thursday. “I’m not saying that Orban’s policy is against Ukraine, but it is against Ukraine’s support,” he told reporters, adding that the talk in Budapest would be a “challenge”.

On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted on X that he was against hosting negotiations in Budapest. The city was the location of the 1994 summit, which led to the broadcast of Kiev from the Soviet nuclear arsenal in exchange for Russian security guarantees. Later, they were pointless by the illegal annexation of Crimea in Moscow and its full-scale invasion of 2022.

“Maybe I’m superstitious, but this time I would try to find another place,” Tusk replied.

France Emmanuel Macron raised the opportunity to hold the summit at the summit in Switzerland, a military neutral European country with a long history of hosting high-bet conversations. Zelenski also argues Vienna, the seat of several international organizations.

In 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an order for Putin, which alleged war crimes in Ukraine, but Switzerland and Austria – both signed ICC – said they would provide immunity to the Russian president if he came for peace talks.

Turkey also sailed as an option.

There is a precedent, as Istanbul has already hosted three rounds of direct conversations at the level of a delegation between Ukraine and Russia since April, although they have failed to lead to any meaningful progress to end the fire outside the prisoner of war.

The Vatican and Saudi Arabia were also mentioned by Ukraine as possible places. The Vatican has long been presenting himself as an appropriate place, while Saudi Arabia has previously mediated in the exchange of prisoners between Kiev and Moscow.

Far from high -level diplomacy, war shows no signs of retreat.

On Thursday, Ukraine said his armed forces had hit an oil refinery in the Russian region of Rostov, which borders on the eastern regions of Ukraine of Donbass.

In the meantime, Russia has launched its biggest wave of blows to Ukraine for weeks, killing one person and wounds much more.

“There is still no signal from Moscow that they will really participate in meaningful negotiations and will end this war,” Zelenski said on social media. “Pressure is required.”