Trump spars with European leader during Ukraine talks over key step to peace

However, he said that "the next steps ahead are the more complicated ones."

"Now the path is open. You opened it last Friday, but now the way is open for complicated negotiations," he said, adding, "And to be honest, we all would like to see a ceasefire at the latest from the next meeting on."

"I can't imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire," he went on. "So, let's work on that."

In response, Trump, who has said he is determined "to go directly to a peace agreement" without a ceasefire, said, "Well, we're going to let the president [Zelenskyy] go over and talk to the president [Putin], and we'll see how that works out."

Trump pointed to his recent successes in helping to broker peace deals between other countries without a ceasefire.

"So, if we can do the ceasefire, great. And, if we don't do the ceasefire because many other points were given to us, many, many points were given to us. Great points," he added.

Trump has previously said that if his meeting with Zelenskyy went well, they will work to schedule a trilateral meeting with Putin, presumably to get a peace agreement finalized and signed.