Ammon News - President Donald Trump could meet Vladimir Putin as soon as next week, a White House official said on Wednesday, as the U.S. continued preparations to impose secondary sanctions, including potentially on China, to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.

Such a face-to-face meeting would be the first between a sitting U.S. and Russian president since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021, some eight months before Russia launched the biggest attack on a European nation since World War Two.

Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019 and make no secret of their contempt for each other.

The New York Times reported that Trump told European leaders during a call on Wednesday that he intended to meet with Putin and then follow up with a trilateral involving the Russian leader and Zelenskiy.

"There's a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon," Trump told reporters.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: "The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the president is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelenskiy." Reuters