President Trump says he is ready to meet Mr. Putin when the time is right.

According to RIA Novosti on January 22, US President Donald Trump announced his readiness to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin when convenient.

“Anytime he wants,” President Donald Trump said at the White House, in response to a related question.

President Trump also had kind words for the Russian leader, praising President Putin for being smart.

At the same time, the White House boss also emphasized the authorization to impose new sanctions against Russia, if this country refuses to negotiate on the Ukraine conflict. Mr. Trump added that Washington is studying the issue of providing more weapons to Kiev.

Earlier, during the election campaign, Donald Trump claimed that the conflict in Ukraine would never have broken out if he had been in charge of the White House instead of his predecessor Joe Biden. Trump also spoke of his intention to reach a solution to the problem within 24 hours if he was re-elected.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the conflict too complex to be resolved in a day. In contrast, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would carefully consider any proposals from Mr. Trump after he takes office.

On January 9, Mr. Trump said that “President Putin wants to meet” him and “we are arranging” the meeting after the inauguration on January 20.

New US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also gave a speech, saying that he could not give a time frame for ending the war between Russia and Ukraine but that each side would have to give "something" as a natural part of resolving any conflict, according to CNN.

However, Secretary of State Rubio did not specify what Ukraine's concessions would be.