The Trump administration appears to be losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin, even as President Trump offers a face-to-face meeting in an effort to end the Ukraine war.

Trump this week flirted with traveling to Turkey to meet with Putin on the sidelines of talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials, but the Kremlin, just before negotiations were expected to kick off, said the Russian president would not be attending and instead sent lower-level officials.

That led Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was in Turkey for meetings about European support for Ukraine, to skip the talks. Rubio later suggested that a Trump-Putin meeting was the "only way" to end the war, a statement that seemed to raise the stakes and signal U.S. displeasure with Putin's foot-dragging.

The Russian leader says he ultimately wants the promise of a better U.S. relationship but has shown little willingness to offer any concessions when it comes to Ukraine.

Trump, on the other hand, is critical of U.S. military support for Ukraine and wants to get into business with Russia. And the president views the war as needlessly destructive to both people and property.

“Vladimir, STOP!” Trump wrote on Truth Social after a Russian strike in Kyiv last month killed a dozen civilians and wounded scores more.

Still, Putin has continuously rebuffed Trump’s calls for a ceasefire.

“We have to meet,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, following Putin’s latest rejections. “He and I will meet, I think we’ll solve it, or maybe not. But at least we’ll know. And if we don’t solve it, it will be very interesting."

The president's last-ditch effort to secure a meeting is risky, with foreign policy experts pointing to Trump's history of taking Putin’s side, which stems back to his first administration.

In 2018, Trump endorsed Putin’s denials that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections,

© The Hill