Macron says Putin 'playing' Trump if he doesn't agree to meet with Zelenskyy
French President Emmanuel Macron said that if Russia's Vladimir Putin doesn't agree to a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by Sept. 1, then it will "again" show that Putin is playing President Donald Trump.
Macron referred to the Monday deadline as having been set by Trump. Macron also told reporters that a bilateral Putin-Zelenskyy meeting was Putin's proposal to Trump.
"If it's not kept, the Monday deadline that had been set by President Trump, I think that, once again, it will mean that President Putin will have been playing President Trump", Macron said at a press conference in France.

On Friday, Zelenskyy said the Russians "will do everything to avoid meeting."
A Ukrainian delegation is in the U.S. for talks with Trump administration officials Friday. Zelenskyy said White House special envoy Steve Witkoff would be meeting with members of his team in New York, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance would participate as well.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, on Friday gave no updated timeline for a possible Putin-Zelenskyy meeting.

-ABC News' Tom Soufi Burridge







