United States President-elect Donald Trump delivers a speech at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, United States, December 16, 2024.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump the Russian president said on Sunday Vladimir Putin expressed interest in a meeting regarding the war with Ukraine.
“President Putin has said he wants to meet with me as soon as possible,” Trump said during his speech at Turning Point’s America Fest convention. “So we have to wait for that, but we have to end this war. This war is horrible, horrible.”
Trump, who is expected to return to the White House in January, previously said on the campaign trail that if elected he could end the war “in 24 hours.” The president-elect recently criticized the president’s policy change Joe Biden which allowed Ukraine to use weapons supplied by the United States to strike inside Russian territory.
The president-elect also recently said that Ukraine will “perhaps” receive less military aid once he takes office. Ukraine relies heavily on its international partners for military, financial and humanitarian aid that allows it to continue functioning as a state and fighting Russia after nearly three years of war.
“The number of troops killed…,” Trump said Sunday. “It’s a flat plane, and the bullets are going and there are powerful bullets, powerful weapons, and the only thing that’s going to stop them is a human body.”
Earlier this month, Trump met with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris with the French president Emmanuel Macron ahead of reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. After the meeting, Trump called for an “immediate ceasefire.”
— NBC News contributed to this report.
