President Donald Trump is open to meeting Vladimir Putin as soon as next week, a White House official said on Wednesday, as the U.S. maintained plans to impose secondary sanctions on Friday in an effort to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.

The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported that Trump would hold a trilateral meeting with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy after meeting with the Russian leader.

The report said the plans were disclosed to European leaders, including Zelenskiy, on Wednesday.

"The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the President is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelenskiy," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, responding to the report.

A Trump-Putin meeting could take place as soon as next week, the White House official said.

The details emerged following a meeting on Wednesday between Putin and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff that Trump said had achieved "great progress."

It comes 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.

The White House official said that while the meeting had gone well and Moscow was eager to continue engaging with the United States, secondary sanctions that Trump has threatened against countries doing business with Russia were still expected to be implemented on Friday. No details were provided.

"My Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, just had a highly productive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Great progress was made!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

"Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come," he added.

A Kremlin aide earlier said Witkoff held "useful and constructive" talks with Putin on Wednesday. The two met for around three hours on a last-minute mission to seek a breakthrough in the 3-1/2-year war that began with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said the two sides had exchanged "signals" on the Ukraine issue and discussed the possibility of developing strategic cooperation between Moscow and Washington, but declined to give more details until Witkoff had reported back to Trump.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believed pressure had worked on Russia and Moscow was now more amenable to a ceasefire.

"It seems that Russia is now more inclined to a ceasefire. The pressure on them works. But the main thing is that they do not deceive us in the details – neither us nor the U.S.," Zelenskiy said in his nightly address.

Writing separately on the X social media platform, Zelenskiy said he had discussed Witkoff's visit to Russia with Trump, adding that he had reiterated Ukraine's support for a just peace and its continued determination to defend itself.

Source: Investing.com