'We're going to find out': Donald Trump says Putin 'may not want a deal'; Moscow plays down summit talk with Zelenskyy

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, may not want to make a deal with Ukraine."We're going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks," he told Fox News, adding, "It's possible that he doesn't want to make a deal." The US president added that the Russian leader faced a "rough situation" if that were the case.

Russia plays down

Moreover, Russia played down talk of a summit between Putin and Zelenskyy after Trump renewed his call for a meeting between the two leaders to end the war. Trump pushed for a summit between the two leaders after he met Putin in Alaska last week and seven European leaders and Zelenskyy on Monday. On Tuesday, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov watered down the commitment after Putin on Monday told Trump that he is "open" to the idea of direct talks with Ukraine. Lavrov said that meeting with Zelenskyy have to be prepared "gradually, starting with the expert level and thereafter going through all the required steps." Talking to BBC, Russian deputy representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said that "nobody [had] rejected" the opportunity for direct talks, "but it shouldn't be a meeting for the sake of a meeting".According to media reports, Putin told Trump that Zelenskyy could travel to Moscow for talks, an idea Ukraine may not accept.