ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — President Trump said he wants to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as possible after the top-level in-person Russia-Ukraine talks fell through.
“As soon as we can set it up,” Trump told reporters on his Middle East trip about the timeline of meeting face-to-face with Putin.
Trump was hopeful that Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would meet in Turkey on Thursday for their first round of in-person negotiations to end the three-year-long war in Ukraine.
Zelensky was ready to meet with Putin, but the Russian president ultimately didn’t go, sending his officials instead.
The Ukrainian leader expressed frustration about Putin not going to Turkey to meet with him, saying Thursday that he thought he was showing “disrespect” towards the US and Turkey by not making the trip.
A ceasefire would be the first order of business in any talks about peace, Zelensky added on Thursday at a press conference, saying the talk between Ukrainian-Russian officials is a good step — but that they wouldn’t fly all around the world “to find” Putin and bring him to the table.
Trump was floating making a stop in Turkey on his way back to Washington to serve as a mediator between the two countries — but said he “understands” that Putin didn’t want to go.
“Look, nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together. Okay?” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday.
“And obviously, he wasn’t going to go. He was going to go — but he thought I was going to go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there.”
The president spent four days on his Middle East trip visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and said that the jam-packed schedule made it impossible for him to make a stop in Turkey.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio doubled down on the message that the talks will now be between Trump and Putin before any real progress can be made.
“I don’t think we’re going to have a breakthrough here until President Trump and President Putin interact directly on this topic,” Rubio said after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Turkey on Thursday.
Trump has spoken to Putin on the phone several times, but the leaders have not met face-to-face since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
There are no current plans to meet in person — but Trump still remained positive about the possibility of peace.
“We’re going to get it done,” Trump said Friday about getting a peace deal through.
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