A senior Russian official says preparations have begun for a face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Donald Trump says he believes Russia has "the cards" in any peace talks to end the war in Ukraine because Russia has "taken a lot of territory". The US president told the BBC he trusted that Moscow wants to see an end to the war, which Russia started when it waged a full-scale invasion almost three years ago.

President Trump signed executive orders and took questions from the press at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. Mr. Trump made disparaging remarks about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said he should've ended the war with Russia a long time ago.