The Kremlin has played down talk of an imminent summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, as Donald Trump renewed his call for the two leaders to meet to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could meet within the next two weeks thanks to President Trump’s efforts to bring an end to the war, according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will brief the media around 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday after two huge diplomatic meetings between Trump and Putin on Friday and Trump, Zelensky, and EU leaders on Monday.

The Kremlin is keeping its options open, but analysts said the Russian leader would probably only meet with his Ukrainian counterpart to accept a capitulation.

Russia has yet again ignored Donald Trump’s bid to hold a summit between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky and said attempts to resolve security issues for Kyiv without Moscow’s participation was a “road to nowhere”.

"The Federalist" CEO Sean Davis appeared on FNC's "The Will Cain Show" on Monday and reacted to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House. WILL CAIN,

Zelensky talks puts Kremlin in a bind: accept and legitimise Kyiv’s leader or refuse and face fresh US sanctions. Read here

A summit in Paris six years ago was the first and only time the two presidents ever met, flanked by French president Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s then-chancellor Angela Merkel. At the time, Putin and Zelensky were looking to hash out a ceasefire deal for war in Donbas in Ukraine’s east, where Russia-backed forces were fighting Ukrainian troops.