The Kremlin said on Thursday that it was hard to see how Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the end of August, Russian state news agency RIA reported.

A Ukrainian delegate said after the latest brief round of peace talks between the two countries on Wednesday that Kyiv had proposed a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting in August because that would fall within the 50-day deadline that U.S. President Donald Trump had set last week for a deal. Trump has threatened new sanctions on Russia and buyers of its exports unless an agreement is reached by early September.