Trump says wants to meet Putin 'as soon as we can set it up'

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would like to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin "as soon as we can set it up", during a business roundtable in Abu Dhabi. "As soon as we can set it up I would actually leave here and go," Trump said in response to a question about meeting the Russian leader.

Trump has repeatedly said he was willing to travel to Turkey to join the first direct Russian-Ukrainian peace talks in more than three years, insisting "nothing's going to happen" before he meets the Russian president face-to-face.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to Turkey but said he would not attend the talks, after his Russian counterpart declined his calls for face-to-face negotiations.


Zelensky had dared Putin to show up and negotiate directly to prove he was serious about peace.

Putin had proposed direct talks, the first since the immediate aftermath of his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but Russia sent a lower-level delegation.

Trump's insistence on the importance of meeting Putin, for whom he has voiced admiration in the past, stands in sharp contrast to the stance of previous US president Joe Biden who insisted only Ukraine itself should negotiate on its future.