President Donald Trump spoke to reporters on Air Force One en route to Alaska saying there was "nothing set in stone", but that he wanted to see "a ceasefire".

He said: "It's not to do with Europe, Europe is not telling me what to do. But they're going to be involved in the process obviously... I want to see a ceasefire rapidly... I don't know if it's going to be today, but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today.

"Everyone said it can't be today, but I am just saying, I want the killing to stop. I am in this to stop the killing, you know we are not putting up any money, we are making money, they're buying our weapons that we're sending up to NATO, and NATO is sending us big beautiful cheques. But I don't care about that... what I do care about is last week, they lost 7,011 people... almost all soldiers, 36 people in a town that got hit by a missile, but over 7,000 soldiers, it's crazy."

The president continued detailing phone calls with Putin, and the difference a face-to-face will make.

He added: "He's a smart guy, been doing it for a long time, but so have I, been doing it for a long time, but here we are, we're president and that was much more difficult than what I am doing today, believe me.

"We get along, there is a good respect level on both sides, and I think something's going to come of it, I notice he's bringing a lot of business people from Russia and that's good, I like that because they want to do business."