President Donald Trump said there was a “very good chance” he would meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy soon in another bid to broker peace between the two countries.

“That road was long, and continues to be long, but there’s a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon,” Trump told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office.

Trump informed allies that he was considering a summit during a phone call earlier Wednesday that also included Zelenskyy. Trump was positive about the possibility of a ceasefire, according to several people with knowledge of the call. He also suggested that Putin would be open to entering into peace talks in exchange for discussing land swaps, the people said.

Trump told reporters he did not want to describe the developments as a “breakthrough” but said he thought the casualties from the war were weighing heavily on both leaders.

“It’s a terrible situation, we want to get it stopped,” the U.S. president said.

The effort to convene a meeting of the three leaders came hours after Putin hosted U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff for three hours of discussions in Moscow.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a meeting would be contingent on making enough progress toward a short ceasefire that would be used to finalize an end to the war. He acknowledged that brokering territorial concessions from both Russia and Ukraine would be necessary, cautioned that there were still “many impediments to overcome” and warned a meeting might not come to fruition until after next week.

“I think what we have is a better understanding of the conditions under which Russia would be prepared to end the war, we now have to compare that to what the Ukrainians and our European allies but the Ukrainians primarily, of course, are willing to accept,” Rubio said in a Fox Business interview.

The Russian president has laid claim to the Ukrainian regions of Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson even though his troops don’t currently occupy the entirety of all those territories.

The U.S. had previously offered to recognize Crimea, which the Kremlin illegally annexed in 2014, as Russian as part of any deal, and to effectively cede control of parts of other Ukrainian regions that Russia occupies. As part of those earlier proposals, control over areas of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson would be returned to Ukraine.

Trump said a location for the summit had not yet been determined, but the Middle East is one likely location for a leader-level meeting. As recently as May, during Trump’s visit to the Gulf states, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had offered to host the leaders. Trump and Putin held a summit in person in Finland in 2018.

The New York Times first reported Trump’s plans as relayed on the call with the diplomats.

Even as the White House signaled progress, the president and other officials reiterated their commitment to imposing additional tariffs on trading partners that purchased Russian energy in a bid to pressure Moscow.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods to 50%, with implementation set to begin in three weeks.

“I don’t know if that had anything to do with it, but we’ve had very productive talks today,” Trump said.

U.S. officials are weighing additional actions to choke off energy sales that are a key source of funds for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

“Let’s see what happens,” Trump said. “Secondary sanctions, a lot more. So this is a taste. We’re going to see a lot more.”

The Trump administration is also considering new sanctions on Moscow’s covert fleet of oil tankers and several entities that enable them to operate, according to people familiar with the matter. The Russian vessels have become instrumental to its ability to move its oil despite U.S. and European sanctions.

“The shadow tanker fleet is the backbone of Russia’s sanctions evasion and war financing,” Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said on the X platform.

The Financial Times first reported the potential measures on Russia’s shadow fleet.

The people said the Trump administration is considering a range of options to restrict Putin’s energy revenues. Other possibilities could include measures targeting oil companies and actions to better enforce existing restrictions.

Experts warned that even if leaders agreed to a summit, a lasting ceasefire would be difficult to to negotiate.

“The prospect of a leader-level summit on such short notice could create unrealistic expectations at this stage,” said Samuel Charap, a senior political scientist at the global policy think tank RAND. “At best it could start a process, not finalize an agreement.”

Putin’s government has said little about the Witkoff conversation, with Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov telling reporters the Russian leader exchanged “signals” with Trump on Ukraine, without elaborating.

Oil fell for the fifth straight session as traders waited to see whether Trump would impose more severe measures to restrict Russian energy flows.

West Texas Intermediate dipped 1.2% to settle just above $64 a barrel, notching the longest daily losing streak since September, as traders positioned for the possibility of a softer stance on Russia than the White House had previously telegraphed.

Futures dipped further after reports that Trump plans to meet Putin in person as soon as next week.

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With assistance from Catherine Lucey, Gregory White, Kate Sullivan, Tony Halpin, Eric Martin and Annmarie Hordern.

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