US President Donald Trump wants not a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, which have been in conflict for more than three and a half years, but a permanent peace agreement between the two neighboring countries, and he believes this is possible.

At the same time, Trump believes that discussions should begin between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on this issue.

Trump met with Zelensky at the White House in Washington on Monday. After the hour-and-a-half meeting, Trump said in response to reporters' questions, "All of us here believe that an immediate ceasefire is the way to get to a lasting peace, and perhaps that could have happened (in the Russia-Ukraine conflict); but it's not happening right now."

“And I don’t know if it (ceasefire) is necessary in this situation. I myself prefer a ceasefire. Because with it you can stop the killing immediately; but I also believe that at the end of everything we need a sustainable peace agreement that can permanently stop the violence. It is very possible and such an agreement could be in the near future.”

However, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz disagreed with Trump's statement, saying that it is important for the two countries to at least have a ceasefire during the next meeting with Putin or Zelensky on this issue.

"We all want a ceasefire... I can't imagine us sitting down for the next meeting on this issue without some kind of ceasefire," Mertz said. "We want to work on this (ceasefire) and press Russia for a possible trilateral (US-Russia-Ukraine) meeting."

Trump met with Zelensky at the White House on Monday at 1:15 p.m. local time on the issue of the Russia-Ukraine ceasefire. After the hour-and-a-half-long meeting, Trump began meetings with the heads of state/government of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, and top officials of the European Union and NATO at around 3 p.m. local time.

Trump and Merz made these remarks during an exchange with reporters before that meeting.