U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio boards an aircraft to depart to the U.S., in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 19. AP-Yonhap

A possible meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin "will largely depend on whether we can make any progress on ending the war in Ukraine," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.

Rubio said he discussed such a meeting when he met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, telling Lavrov and Russian officials: "There isn't going to be a meeting until we know what the meeting is going to be about."

"You don't generally have these meetings until you know some outcome or some progress has been made," Rubio told journalist Catherine Herridge in an interview broadcast on X.

"So I think when that meeting happens will largely depend on whether we can make any progress on ending the war in Ukraine, and if we can, and that meeting is what seals the deal, I think everybody should celebrate that President Trump is a peacemaker," he said. (Reuters)