Russian President Vladimir Putin should seek an end to the war as he lost 700,000 people to hostilities, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said in comments for the New York Post published on Dec. 8.
"I’m formulating a concept of how to end that ridiculous war," Trump told the news outlet following his trip to Paris, where he met Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time since the former's reelection.
"He (Zelensky) wants to have a ceasefire... He wants to make peace. We didn’t talk about the details," Trump said in a phone interview.
Speaking about Putin, Trump said that "when you lose 700,000 people, it’s time. It’s not going to end until there’s peace." The U.S. president-elect previously said on Truth Social that Russia had lost 600,000 soldiers during the war in Ukraine.
Trump, who will return to the White House on Jan. 20, pledged to end the war within 24 hours following his reelection and bring both sides to the negotiating table. In a media interview published on Dec. 8, the president-elect said Kyiv could expect a possible reduction of U.S. assistance.
The contours of Trump's plan to end the war remain unclear, but suggestions circulating within his team entailed freezing the war along the current front lines and postponing Ukraine's NATO aspirations.
"(W)hen we talk about effective peace with Russia, we must first and foremost talk about effective guarantees for peace," Zelensky said on X after his talks with Trump.
"Ukrainians want peace more than anyone else. Russia brought war to our land, and it is Russia that most seeks to disrupt the possibility of peace."
As Trump's presidency approaches, the outgoing Biden administration seeks to ship as much aid to Ukraine as possible, announcing a military aid package worth almost $1 billion on Dec. 7.
Martina Sapio
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