Donald Trump has said that plans are in motion for a meeting with Vladimir Putin, but Moscow has claimed that no such meeting has been discussed.
Before his inauguration, Mr Trump’s team said they are trying to work with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to bring about peace talks to end the war.
Before a gathering with Republican governors at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Thursday, Mr Trump announced that the Russian president “wants to meet me” to put an end to the “bloody mess”.
He said: “He wants to meet, and we are setting it up. President Putin wants to meet. He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess.”
However, during a press conference at his Florida resort on Tuesday, when questioned about meeting Putin, Mr Trump hesitated to confirm a specific date.
He added: “I know that Putin would like to meet, I don’t think it’s appropriate that I meet until after the 20th which I hate because every day people, many young people, are being killed.”
However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov put these rumours of a meeting to bed, claiming that no one from Mr Trump’s team has approached Putin.
He said: “No, there were no requests. But, on the other hand, for obvious reasons, it would probably be more expedient to wait until the new US president takes office.
“If, after taking office, the political will to resume contacts at the highest level remains, then, of course, President Putin will only welcome this. He has repeatedly spoken about his readiness for dialogue and the need for this dialogue.”
Following his victory in the 2024 election, Mr Trump asserted he had a phone conversation with Putin, where they discussed bringing peace to Europe and urged against further escalation of the war.
The Kremlin refuted these claims, with Mr Peskov branding such reports as “completely untrue. It is pure fiction; it is simply false information”.
He emphasised that “no conversations took place” and when pressed on whether a meeting was forthcoming, he said “there are no concrete plans yet”.
