National Guard troops in DC are now armed, defense official says

In a phone interview with the radio program The Mark Levin Show on Tuesday, President Trump indicated that he thinks a meeting between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine is the best next step in peace negotiations. But Trump said that after he'd join the men for a meeting to get a peace deal "closed."

"I had a very successful meeting with President Putin. I had a very successful meeting with President Zelenskyy. And now I thought it would be better if they met without me, just to see, I want to see what goes on," he said. "You know, they had a hard relationship, very bad, very bad relationship. And now we'll see how they do and if necessary, and it probably would be, but if necessary, I'll go and I'll probably be able to get it closed."

"I just want to see what happens at the meeting. So they're in the process of setting it up, and we're going to see what happens," he continued.

-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"I understand that the White House is working and allies are working to make this meeting happen, but did Putin promise to do a meeting with Zelenskyy, a direct meeting, in the coming weeks?" a reporter asked Leavitt.

"He has," she responded.

Trump wrote in a social media post on Monday that he called Putin, "and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy."

On Tuesday morning, during an interview on "Fox & Friends," Trump said he was "trying to work out a meeting."

“I called President Putin, and we're trying to work out a meeting with President Zelenskyy. We'll see what happens there. And then, if that works out, if it works out, then I'll go to the trilateral and close it up,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday refrained from committing to a meeting and said any possible summits between the two leaders must be "prepared with the utmost care."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about President Donald Trump's call to end mail-in ballots in elections by a reporter who noted that states govern the rules around the election methods.

The press secretary did not have a direct answer but said that other leaders are interested in looking into the topic.

"Congress comes back to Washington, I'm sure there will be many discussions with our friends on Capitol Hill and also our friends in state legislatures across the country to ensure that we're protecting the integrity of the vote, for the American people," she said.

There has been no evidence to back Trump's claims about mail voting fraud, which have been refuted by several courts, election offices, audits and other security checks in several elections.

Studies have shown that fraud in mail-ballot voting is rare, and in those few instances, the perpetrator was punished, and the votes were never counted.

ABC News' Rachel Scott asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt why President Donald Trump's proposal for a meeting between him and the Russian and Ukrainian presidents changed into a bilateral meeting.

Leavitt stressed that while the U.S. is working to get Zelenskyy and Putin together, it was up to them to get a plan.

"The president has always said that there are areas of disagreement in this war that will have to be discussed and decided upon by these two countries. And so he wants these two countries to engage in direct diplomacy," Leavitt said.