President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet briefly at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, albeit only "on their feet," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday, according to a Russian-state media outlet.

According to a translation of Peskov remarks, he said "all participants will intersect" at the G-20, suggesting an encounter between Putin and Trump was inevitable at the gathering of world leaders in Buenos Aires. The Russian spokesman's statement represented the latest twist in a back-and-forth between the Trump administration and their counterparts in Moscow.

When asked on Friday if he would exchange pleasantries with Putin, Trump responded: "Not particularly. I don't know.”

The two world leaders were supposed to sit down for high-stakes talks at the summit, but Trump abruptly canceled that session via Twitter on Thursday, citing Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian ships and its crew members as his reason.

"Ukraine. Purely and simply – Ukraine," Trump told reporters on Friday when asked why he cancelled the meeting. "We don't like what happened ... And hopefully they'll be able to settle it out soon because we look forward to meeting with President Putin. But on the basis of what took place with respect to the ships and the sailors, that was the sole reason."

Trump's decision to cancel his formal meeting with Putin came shortly after new details emerged detailing Trump's business dealings in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign. In a plea agreement submitted on Thursday, Michael Cohen, the president's lawyer and fixer, told prosecutors that then-candidate Trump was pursuing a real-estate development in Moscow during the first half of 2016, longer into Trump's presidential campaign than previously acknowledged.

Cohen's statements came as part of his cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. Trump has downplayed the new revelations, saying the deal never got off the ground and it would have been legal anyway.

In a tweet on Friday morning from Buenos Aires, Trump said he "lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in Russia." But he said he "put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn’t do the project."

Trump has emphatically denied business dealings in Russia for years, despite evidence in court documents and public statements showing that his interest in developing luxury real estate in Moscow stretches back decades.

Kremlin officials suggested Friday that Trump canceled his meeting with Putin over domestic political concerns, not its clash with Ukraine.

"We have heard the official explanation and taken note of it," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday, according to Tass, Russia's official news agency. "But is it true? I think the true reason is rooted in the domestic political situation in the United States."

In a statement Friday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders blasted Mueller's probe as a "Russian Witch Hunt Hoax."

“ … Unfortunately, it probably does undermine our relationship with Russia,” she said. “However, the reason for our canceled meeting is Ukraine. Hopefully, that will be resolved soon so that productive conversations can begin.”

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