US President-elect Donald Trump has announced that plans are underway for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. While no timeline has been provided, Trump revealed during remarks at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that both leaders are keen to hold discussions.
“He wants to meet, and we are setting it up,” Trump said. However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, cited by Russian news agency Tass, stated that the US has not yet made a formal request for the meeting.
Trump, who is set to take office on 20 January, has pledged to broker an end to the ongoing war in Ukraine shortly after his inauguration. Expressing scepticism about the extent of US military and financial support for Kyiv, Trump reiterated his focus on peace efforts.
“President Putin wants to meet,” he said on Thursday. “He has said that even publicly, and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess.”
Trump has nominated Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant-general and former national security adviser, to serve as a special envoy to Ukraine and Russia in his administration. Kellogg previously outlined his vision for US involvement in the conflict in a research paper published by the America First Policy Institute in April last year.
In the paper, Kellogg proposed that US aid to Ukraine should be conditional on Kyiv’s willingness to engage in peace talks with Moscow. However, he also suggested that if Moscow declined to participate, the US should continue supporting Ukraine militarily and financially.
Following Trump’s election victory in November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed optimism about the conflict’s resolution. He suggested that Trump’s leadership might accelerate the war’s end.
Zelensky described their post-election phone call as a “constructive exchange” but did not disclose whether Trump had made any demands regarding potential peace negotiations with Russia.
As Trump prepares to assume the presidency, the international community will closely watch his next steps in addressing the conflict, particularly the potential outcomes of a meeting with Putin and its implications for US-Ukraine-Russia relations.
Melissa Enoch
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