President Trump Calls It Possible To Meet President Putin This Month, Dismissing Ukraine's Concerns

JAKARTA - The President of the United States said on Tuesday he was likely to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month, removing concerns about Ukraine not participating in negotiations in Saudi Arabia.

Russia and the United States' high-level delegations held a meeting of around 4.5 hours in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, as part of efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Welcoming the meeting and more confident about the end of the war, President Trump revealed his possibility of meeting with President Putin this month.

"Maybe," President Trump said at the end of a press conference at his club Mar-a-Lago at Palm Beach when asked if he was still hoping to meet Putin's Presidency before the end of the month.

While briefing reporters on previous US-Russian negotiations in Riyadh, Foreign Minister Marco Rubio said the two sides had not set a date for the Trump-Putin summit to discuss Ukraine.

Russian President Yury Ushakov's aide also said there was no time yet to be set for a meeting of the two leaders.

"The delegations of the two countries have a lot of work to do. We are ready for this but it is still difficult to talk about the specific date of the meeting between the two leaders," Ushakov said in an interview with the Russian television channel Channel One, quoted from TASS.

However, he confirmed that the presidential meeting was a topic of discussion at the Riyadh Summit.

"The issue has been discussed. We are currently compiling the provisions of this meeting," Ushakov added.

The meeting of the delegations of Russia and the United States began at morning local time at one of the royal family's palaces, Al Diriyah, Albasateen Complex.

Russia was represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Aide to President Yury Ushakov, and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev.

Meanwhile, the United States was represented by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

President Trump also dismissed Ukraine's concerns about not taking part in the meeting, saying Kyiv could make a deal with Russia three years ago to prevent an invasion by Moscow.

"Today I heard, 'oh, we weren't invited.' Well, you've been there for three years, you should end it. You should never have started it. You could have made a deal," said President Trump.