Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin could meet for the first time in six years in the hope of ending the Ukraine war - but it remains unclear just where the two leaders will come face-to-face. The White House is in the process of selecting a location for the potential meeting, that has been championed by the US president Donald Trump.

Doing so would require the Russian leader to “accept the failure of sitting down with a president he considers a joke from a country that doesn’t exist”

Over a whirlwind four days of diplomacy designed to end the war in Ukraine, President Donald Trump has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and prominent European leaders.

President Trump had suggested a meeting between Russia and Ukraine’s leaders could be a potential next step on the path to peace. Russian state news media barely mentioned the idea.

President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky met Monday in the White House. Trump said the United States will give "very good protection."

A summit in Paris six years ago was the first and only time the two presidents ever met, flanked by French president Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s then-chancellor Angela Merkel. At the time, Putin and Zelensky were looking to hash out a ceasefire deal for war in Donbas in Ukraine’s east, where Russia-backed forces were fighting Ukrainian troops.

President Trump seeks to broker a meeting of the two leaders to end Europe’s most destructive war in generations.

Last month was the deadliest since Putin launched his full-scale war on Ukraine three and a half years ago. In July alone, 286 civilians were killed and another 1,388, according to official data.