US to offer Russian President Putin face-to-face talks with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and US President Trump, Politico reports

US to offer Russian President Putin face-to-face talks with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and US President Trump, Politico reports.

Offers of direct leader-level talks between Moscow and Kyiv, brokered by Washington, follow a well-worn pattern in this conflict: periodic diplomatic initiatives that reprice the war-risk premium in European assets before the substance, if any, is known. In past episodes of this kind, the knee-jerk reaction has run through the same channels, a bid in the euro and European equities, a fade in Brent, European natural gas and gold, and softer defence names, with the moves prone to partial or full reversal when talks stall, as they have repeatedly. The distinction worth drawing is between a meeting as theatre and a meeting as process: the former fades within sessions, the latter is confirmed by follow-ons such as agreed agendas, ceasefire terms under discussion, or sanctions relief entering the frame. The actors' prior form matters here, since previous rounds of reported summitry have been announced, downgraded, or denied within days, and Russian conditions on territory and Ukrainian conditions on security guarantees have historically been the sticking points. What is worth watching next is confirmation from Kyiv and Moscow rather than Washington, any movement in front-month TTF and Brent spreads, and whether the proposal survives contact with the principals' stated red lines. As a single-sourced report of an offer rather than an agreement, the signal is preliminary.