A Trump-Poutin meeting could happen as soon as next week, the White House official says

A bilateral meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could happen as soon as next week, a White House official said Wednesday.

But Trump himself was less definitive when journalists asked him at an Oval office event later in the day about whether he would meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“Well, look, I don’t want to say that it is: it has disappointed me before with this,” he replied.

At the same time, he said that there is a “very good perspective” of a summit between Putin and Zelenskyy.

“Well, there is a very good perspective for them to do it,” he said. “And we have not determined where, but we had some very good conversations with President Putin today. And, there is a very good possibility that we could finish, finishing the round, ending the end of that path. That path was long and is still long. But, there is a good possibility that they are a meeting very soon.”

When asked if there was an advance in Wednesday’s conversations in Moscow between Putin and the envoy Steve Witkoff and if Putin made some kind of concession that he has not been willing to make before “Trump replied”, I don’t call him a great advance. I mean, we have been working on this for a long time. “

Trump was asked if his opinion that Putin was “hitting” had changed, but said it was too early to know.

“I can’t answer the question yet. I will tell you, in a matter of weeks, maybe less. But we have progressed a lot,” Trump said.

I would not evaluate whether they are close to an agreement, since it has been “very disappointed” before.

When Witkoff returned from Moscow on Wednesday, he transmitted to President Trump that Putin would like to meet him, said the White House official.

In response, Trump indicated that he is open to that if Putin also meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the official added.

During an interview with Larry Kudlow by Fox Business Network, Secretary of State Marco Rubio measured about what had left the day developments related to Russia and Ukraine, saying that it could take time to unite the leaders of the countries.

“I don’t know if it will be next week or not. It remains to be seen. I think it will depend a lot on how much progress we can do,” said the secretary when asked about Trump’s plans for the trilateral summit.

Rubio said the Administration would hold additional conversations with European allies and the Ukrainians in the next few days destined to take all parties to the point where a face -to -face meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy “will be productive and it is worth doing.”

“With luck, if things continue to progress, an opportunity will appear very soon for the president to meet with Vladimir Putin and with President Zelenskyy at some point here, hopefully in the near future, but obviously it has to happen long before that may happen,” he said, emphasizing that there was “a lot of work ahead.”

“There are still many impediments to overcome, and we hope to do it in the next days and hours, perhaps,” he said.

Witkoff met with Putin for several hours before the deadline of Friday imposed by Trump so that Russia agrees a high fire with Ukraine or faces sanctions.

According to a superior administration official, the meeting “was fine”, but secondary sanctions will still be deployed against Moscow this week.

Trump has expressed a growing frustration with Putin about the conflict, shortening the deadline for a fire of 50 to 10 days, since he said he was “disappointed” in the Russian leader.

Trump, in a publication on social networks on Wednesday, described the meeting between Witkoff and Putin “highly productive.”

“Great progress was achieved! Then, I updated some of our European allies. Everyone agrees that this war must come to an end, and we will work towards that in the next few days and weeks,” Trump wrote.

Kelsey Walsh and Shannon Kingston from ABC News contributed to this report.