Doing so would require the Russian leader to “accept the failure of sitting down with a president he considers a joke from a country that doesn’t exist”

President Trump said Tuesday that it would be “better” if Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met without him first as Trump pushes the leaders to bring an end to the more than three-year-long war in Eastern Europe.

The Kremlin hasn't ruled out summits but has said they could only meet in the very final stages of clinching a peace agreement.