"He's ready"

Speaking on the "Air Force One" show, he refused to go into the details of the peace talks. but he added that the US is having "a lot of good talks about Ukraine and Russia".

"We want the conflict to stop as soon as possible because thousands of people have been killed in a week. Europe has not been successful in interacting with President Putin, but I think I will be successful," he said.

Trump commented that Putin's investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev traveled to Washington, where he met with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

"The sides have largely continued to discuss steps to normalize bilateral relations that the Biden administration has frozen in 2022," Dmitriev told reporters Thursday evening.

He pointed to the "positive dynamics" of the talks, adding that it is necessary to hold more meetings to resolve the differences.

Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg told Fox Business on Wednesday that Trump is "frustrated" with both Putin and Zelensky.

He remained optimistic about the talks, saying the sides were "on the brink" of a comprehensive ceasefire.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of multiple violations of an energy truce brokered by Trump last month.

According to Russia's defense ministry, Ukraine struck fuel depots, gas plants and the power grid, despite a pledge to observe a 30-day pause in such strikes. Kyiv claimed that Russia was violating the same agreement.

Russia argued that any long-term solution would only be viable if the US and Ukraine addressed the root causes of the conflict.

Moscow is demanding that Kyiv abandon its plans to join NATO and recognize Crimea and four other former Ukrainian regions as Russian territory.