While optimistic messages were heard from both the United States and Russia following Wednesday’s three-hour meeting between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, Estonian experts remain cautious about the upcoming meeting between Putin and Trump himself.
Security expert Rainer Saks said it appears that Russia was able, at the Witkoff meeting, to present a proposal of its own to stop direct U.S. pressure on Russia.
“I think that President Putin made a proposal to negotiate some kind of partial or phased ceasefire. I think he did not give any concrete promise to end or suspend hostilities for any period of time, but offered some steps which, at least on the surface, it would be possible to move with, toward halting the fighting,” said Saks.
“The first stage could be halting airstrikes on civilian infrastructure or on targets located further from the front line,” Saks added.
U.S. policy expert Andreas Kaju, meanwhile, urged caution on the Trump-Putin summit, likely in the coming days.
More read: ERR.EE
