US President Donald Trump may meet Vladimir Putin as soon as next week, a White House official said on Wednesday.

The US continued preparations to impose secondary sanctions, possibly targeting China, to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.

Such a face-to-face meeting would be the first between a sitting US and Russian president since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021, some eight months before Russia launched the biggest attack on a European nation since World War Two.

Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019 and make no secret of their contempt for each other.

The New York Times reported that Trump told European leaders during a call on Wednesday that he intended to meet with Putin and then follow up with a trilateral involving the Russian leader and Zelenskiy.

“There’s a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon,” Trump told reporters. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the president is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelenskiy.”

The details emerged following a meeting on Wednesday between Putin and US special envoy Steve Witkoff that Trump described as having achieved “great progress” in a Truth Social post, although later said he would not call it a breakthrough.

A Kremlin aide said the talks were “useful and constructive.”

The diplomatic maneuvers come two days before a deadline set by Trump for Russia to agree to peace in Ukraine or face new sanctions.

Trump has been increasingly frustrated with Putin over the lack of progress towards peace and has threatened to impose heavy tariffs on countries that buy Russian exports, including oil.

Trump on Wednesday also said he could announce further tariffs on China similar to the 25% duties announced earlier on India over its purchases of Russian oil.

“We did it with India. We’re doing it probably with a couple of others. One of them could be China,” he said.