Russia has continued its bombardment of Ukraine with drones and missiles, and Trump has talked down his ambitions for a bilateral meeting without the United States’ involvement, telling The Daily Caller his suggested trilateral meeting between the US, Ukraine, and Russia is far more likely to come about.

“A [trilateral] would happen. A [bilateral], I don’t know about, but a tri will happen. But, you know, sometimes people aren’t ready for it,” Trump said.

“I use the analogy, I’ve used it a couple of times: You have a child, and there’s another child in the lot, in the playground, and they hate each other, and they start swinging, swinging and swinging, and you want them to stop, and they keep going.

“After a little while, they’re very happy to stop. Do you understand that? It’s almost that way. Sometimes they have to fight for a little bit before you can get them to stop.”

But Trump conceded the war has already “been going on got a long time. A lot of people are dead,” he added.