The incoming US president said on Friday that preparations were already underway for a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Donald Trump, who previously said he could end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours”, said the details of the top-level talks were still to be determined.
What did the newly elected President say?
“President Putin wants to meet, he’s said so publicly, and we have to end that war, it’s a bloody mess,” Trump said Thursday.
During the election campaign, Trump has often celebrated his relationship with Putin, claiming that he could rapidly end the war in Ukraine, without disclosing how he would do so.
Earlier this week, Trump – who has long praised Putin – said he was optimistic the war would end within six months.
“I hope much sooner than six months,” he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
Trump claimed that troops were being killed “by the millions”, though he quickly revised the figure to “hundreds of thousands”.
He suggested that the number of casualties in the war was “much higher than is being reported by the press.”
The president-elect also referred to building collapses, saying, “When a building like this collapses and they say no one was injured – no, no, a lot of people died.”
How the figures stack up
UN officials say Russian forces have killed at least 12,300 civilians in Ukraine. Meanwhile, several European media outlets put the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed at around 80,000.
In July 2024 – citing US Defense Department documents – The Economist reported that 462,000 to 728,000 Russian soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured by mid-June.
Trump has criticized US support for Ukraine and said Ukraine should have made concessions to Putin before Russia invaded in 2022. He also called the Russian leader “clever enough” to invade Ukraine.
Kiev is worried that US aid will be drastically reduced when Trump takes power. In his New Year’s address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to Washington not to cut aid to Ukraine.
rc/lo (dpa, AFP)
