President Donald Trump on Friday told reporters he wants to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine "as soon as we can set it up."

Axar.az, citing Fox News, reports that the president, speaking from Abu Dhabi during the last stop of his four-day Middle East tour, said: "I think it’s time for us to just do it."

Trump had said earlier that a meeting between him and Putin was crucial to breaking the deadlock.

Putin spurned an offer this week by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to meet face-to-face for peace talks in Istanbul. Trump said he didn’t think Putin would show up if he didn’t attend the talks himself.