United States President-elect, Donald Trump, has announced that plans are underway for a meeting between himself and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump stated, “He wants to meet and we are setting it up.” However, no timeline was provided for the anticipated meeting.
Russian news agency Tass reported that Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed no formal request for the meeting has been made by the US.
Trump, who will assume office on 20 January, has pledged to prioritise ending the ongoing war in Ukraine.
He has been critical of the current US military and financial support for Kyiv, reiterating on Thursday, “President Putin wants to meet. He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess.”
To spearhead his administration’s diplomatic efforts, Trump has nominated retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, a former national security adviser, as special envoy to Ukraine and Russia.
Kellogg’s proposal for resolving the conflict, outlined in a 2024 research paper by the America First Policy Institute, suggests conditioning US aid to Ukraine on its willingness to engage in peace talks with Moscow.
Following Trump’s election win in November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed optimism, stating that he believed Trump’s presidency could speed up the end of the war.
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