Earlier on Thursday, Volodymyr Zelensky called for a face-to-face meeting between himself and Vladimir Putin in a renewed bid to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
In an open letter to the Russian president, the Ukrainian leader said it would be “wrong to simply wait” until the war in Europe becomes the focus of the US’s attention once more, adding peace could only come “through direct engagement between” Ukraine and Russia.
He also called for a full ceasefire for the duration of proposed negotiations – something Putin ruled out earlier on Thursday.
Trump said on Thursday he thought “it would be great” if the two leaders met.
Ceasefire negotiations have stalled in recent months, and previous peace talks in Geneva, Abu Dhabi and Istanbul have failed.
The Ukrainian president’s letter came on the same day Putin was in St Petersburg, where a major economic forum is taking place.
The previous day Kyiv had launched a drone attack on the city’s outskirts, a strike mentioned in Zelensky’s message as “paying a visit”.
Separately Russian-backed authorities in occupied Crimea blamed Ukraine for the death of four people in attacks on Simferopol. Ukraine said it had hit a fuel depot.
