The White House on Friday clarified Joe Biden’s comments made the day before, insisting that the US president does not currently plan to speak with Vladimir Putin on the issue of Ukraine, AFP reports.

“He has no intention of talking to Mr. Putin at this time,” John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, which reports to the White House, said on Friday. “And as President Biden also said, Putin has shown absolutely no interest in any dialogue — quite the opposite, in fact,” he told reporters.

On Thursday, Biden said he was “willing to talk to Putin if he’s looking for a way to end the war,” while noting that the Russian president “hasn’t done that yet.”

“If that were the case, after consulting my friends in France and NATO, I would be happy to sit down with Putin to see what he means. He hasn’t done it yet,” he said at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

It is the closest sign of opening a dialogue with the Kremlin on the war in Ukraine, but Moscow “clearly” rejected the offer on Friday, saying it would involve the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, an option Russia is not considering.

Kirby also denied that the US is pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to resume negotiations with Moscow.

“The president did not say that now is the right time for negotiations,” he said. “The war can end today without negotiations if Putin does the right thing and leaves Ukraine. His troops are of no use there,” he added.