US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he did not expect progress on Ukraine until he meets Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who did not show up to talks with Kyiv in Turkey.

"I don't believe anything's going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together," Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he flew from Qatar to the United Arab Emirates.

"But we're going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky flew to Ankara on Thursday after daring Putin to show up and negotiate directly to prove he was serious about peace.

Putin had proposed direct talks, the first since the immediate aftermath of his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but Russia sent a lower-level delegation.

Asked if he was disappointed about the Russian level of attendance, Trump said: "I haven't even checked."

"Obviously he wasn't going to go," Trump said of Putin.

"He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go. He wasn't going if I wasn't there."

Trump has repeatedly said he was willing to travel to Turkey to join the talks but has not done so, although Secretary of State Marco Rubio headed there.

Trump's insistence on the importance of meeting Putin, for whom he has voiced admiration in the past, stands in sharp contrast to the stance of previous US president Joe Biden who insisted only Ukraine itself should negotiate on its future.