Russia-Ukraine Conflict Updates | Trump Says Putin May Not Want Ukraine Peace Deal The Kremlin has played down talk of an imminent summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, as Donald Trump renewed his call for the two leaders to meet to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. The push for a bilateral meeting comes after the US president met Putin in Alaska last week, and welcomed seven European leaders and Zelensky to the White House on Monday. Trump admitted the conflict was "a tough one" to solve and conceded it was possible the Russian president was not interested in ending hostilities. The Russian president on Monday told Trump he was "open" to the idea of direct talks with Ukraine, but the next day Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov watered down that already vague commitment.