Key points
- “He wants to meet, and we’re setting it up,” says Trump
- Trump has frequently mocked Ukrainian President Zelensky as a “salesman”
- Biden admin has provided Ukraine military aid of over $65 billion since Feb 2022
WASHINGTON: United States (US) President-elect Donald Trump has said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin wanted to meet and that a meeting between the pair was being arranged.
He made the remarks just a week and a half before taking office, following promises during his election campaign to bring peace to Ukraine, which has been under Russian invasion since February 2022.
Ending the war
“He wants to meet, and we’re setting it up,” 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 said that even publicly, and we have to get that war over with, that’s a bloody mess.”
Trump has never made any concrete proposals for a ceasefire or peace deal, and has often criticized the large amount of military aid the United States has sent to Kyiv.
Involvement in NATO
Trump has also frequently mocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “salesman,” while raising eyebrows in Washington by rarely criticizing Putin — and even speaking admiringly of the Kremlin leader.
In addition to criticizing the massive military aid sent to Ukraine under President Joe Biden, Trump has raised doubts over continued US involvement in the Western military alliance NATO.
The United States under Biden has been Ukraine’s biggest wartime backer, providing military aid worth more than $65 billion since February 2022.
