US President said he was not disappointed by news that Russia President will not attend talks with Ukraine in Turkey this week, claiming he didn’t expect Putin to go to the talks that the Russian leader himself suggested, writes CNN.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin would not be in attendance for the talks. The direct talks were first proposed by Vladimir Putin in response to the ceasefire-or-sanctions ultimatum given to Moscow by Ukraine’s European allies on Saturday.

In a subsequent post to social media, Donald Trump called on Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to “HAVE THE MEETING, NOW!!!”

Days later, Trump told reporters in Qatar he “didn’t anticipate” Putin’s participation when asked if he was disappointed by the Russian president’s absence at the upcoming talks: “No, I didn’t anticipate (Putin would go). I actually said, ‘Why would he go if I’m not going?’ Because I wasn’t going to go. I wasn’t planning to. I would go, but I wasn’t planning to go. And I said, ‘I don’t think he’s going to go if I don’t go.’ And that turned out to be right. I didn’t think it was possible for Putin to go if I’m not there”.