Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin is reluctant to meet Volodymyr Zelensky because he “doesn’t like him”.

After his Alaska summit with Putin and White House visit from Mr Zelensky and European leaders last week, the US president had been confident the two leaders would shortly sit down for bilateral talks.

But Putin has appeared to stall the meeting, with his foreign minister on Sunday claiming there “needs to be an agenda” before the two leaders meet.

Asked why he thinks the Russian despot is so averse to meeting with Mr Zelensky, Mr Trump said: “Because he doesn’t like him, he doesn’t like him... they don’t like each other, really.”

“I don’t know if they’ll meet. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t,” Mr Trump said in the Oval office.

“They do not exactly get along well,” he added of the Ukrainian and Russian leaders.