US President Donald Trump said he phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to begin making arrangements for a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be followed by a trilateral meeting involving Trump, Putin, and Zelenskyy.

Trump made the comments on August 18 after meeting Zelenskyy at the White House for one-on-one discussions about ending the war in Ukraine followed by meetings with European leaders.

Trump said the location of the meeting has yet to be determined, but Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and special envoy Steve Witkoff are coordinating with Russia and Ukraine. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the meeting is to take place within the next two weeks.

"This was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years," Trump said on Truth Social.

Yury Ushakov, aide to Putin on foreign affairs, said both sides expressed support for the continuation of direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations.

The idea of raising the level of the representatives of the Ukrainian and Russian sides was discussed, Ushakov said in a statement. He also noted that Putin and Trump agreed to continue maintaining close contact with each other on Ukraine and on other pressing issues of the international and bilateral agenda.

It was not clear from Ushakovs statement whether Putin agreed to meet Zelenskyy.

Trump said earlier as he welcomed Zelenskyy to the White House that Washington will be involved in providing security to Kyiv.

"When it comes to security, there's going to be a lot of help.... They're the first line of defense because they're there, Europe, but we're going to help them out also, we'll be involved," Trump said, during an initial bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.