US President Donald Trump said that, in his opinion, "it would be better" if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, first met without him, and he "just wants to see what happens at the meeting," UNN reports with reference to NBC News.
Details
In a radio interview, Trump explained his reasoning for attempting to arrange a bilateral meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy.
"I thought it would be better if they met without me, just to see. I want to see what happens next. You know, they had a difficult relationship, a very bad, very bad relationship. And now we'll see how they handle it, and, if necessary, and probably it will be, but if necessary, I will go and probably be able to get closer to it," Trump said in a phone interview on The Mark Levin Show.
"I just want to see what happens at the meeting. So they are organizing it now, and we'll see what happens," Trump added.
Addition
Earlier, after meeting with Zelenskyy and other European leaders, Trump stated on social media that he was organizing a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin, and that a trilateral meeting involving the United States would follow. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later stated that Putin had informed Trump he would meet with Zelenskyy.