WashingtonNewly elected US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants to meet and arrangements are being made for a meeting between the two.
He made the statement just a week and a half before taking office, following promises he made during his campaign to bring peace to Ukraine, which has been under Russian invasion since February 2022.
“He wants to meet, and we’re arranging it,” Trump said at a meeting with Republican governors at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
“President Putin wants to meet, he’s even said so publicly, and we have to end that war, it’s a bloody mess.”
Trump has never made any concrete proposals for a ceasefire or peace agreement, and has often criticized the large amounts of military aid the United States has sent to Kiev.
Trump has often mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “salesman” while rarely criticizing Putin, raising eyebrows in Washington — and even praising the Kremlin leader.
In addition to criticizing the massive military aid sent to Ukraine under President Joe Biden, Trump has cast doubt on America’s continued participation in the Western military alliance NATO.
The United States under Biden has been Ukraine’s largest war supporter, providing more than $65 billion in military aid through February 2022.
