If anyone could convince him to change his look, it would be me,” said Viktor Anisimov, who was working to transform the Ukrainian president’s look even before it was questioned at a White House meeting.

A summit in Paris six years ago was the first and only time the two presidents ever met, flanked by French president Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s then-chancellor Angela Merkel. At the time, Putin and Zelensky were looking to hash out a ceasefire deal for war in Donbas in Ukraine’s east, where Russia-backed forces were fighting Ukrainian troops.

Doing so would require the Russian leader to “accept the failure of sitting down with a president he considers a joke from a country that doesn’t exist”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a Russian drone strike on Okhtyrka in the Sumy region wounded 14 people, including a family with three young children, overnight into Wednesday, August 20.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could meet within the next two weeks thanks to President Trump’s efforts to bring an end to the war, according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin could meet for the first time in six years in the hope of ending the Ukraine war - but it remains unclear just where the two leaders will come face-to-face. The White House is in the process of selecting a location for the potential meeting, that has been championed by the US president Donald Trump.