with Washington as the American leader pushes for an end to the war.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would like to meet with Trump, a day after senior American and Russian officials held talks that were partially aimed at preparing just such a summit.

Zelenskyy said he “would like Trump’s team to be more truthful” in his first response to a series of striking claims the US president made the previous day, including suggesting that Kyiv was to blame for the war, which enters its fourth year next week.

Russia’s army crossed the border on February 24, 2022, in an all-out invasion that Putin sought to justify by saying it was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine and prevent the country from joining NATO. Ukraine and its allies denounced it as an unprovoked act of aggression. The comments from Trump and Zelenskyy were a remarkable back-and-forth between leaders of two countries that have been staunch allies in recent years under Trump’s predecessor, as the US provided crucial military equipment to Kyiv to fend off the invasion and used its political weight to defend Ukraine and isolate Russia on the world stage.