REPORTS: Trump to speak to Merkel about Russia on same day he talks to Putin for the first time

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is likely to speak with US President Donald Trump on Saturday and the conversation is expected to focus on Russia, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

On the same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump are also supposed to have their first phone call, the TASS news agency cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

The source did not say tell Reuters whether Trump might want to speak with Merkel about a lifting of the US and European sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its intervention in Ukraine, as overnight reports from the United States suggested.

But the source made clear that if such a step were taken, then the European Union would not necessarily follow Washington, as its sanctions remain tied to implementation of the Minsk peace deal.

Trump has previously hinted that he did not think sanctions on Russia were a good way of dealing with the Ukrainian conflict. On Tuesday, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said world powers should keep sanctions on Russia, and rejected Trump's proposal to consider reducing the penalties if Moscow proved a useful ally.

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