President-elect Donald Trump said late Thursday he is ready to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that the meeting is currently being arranged, though he gave no timeline for when it might take place.
“He wants to meet, and we are setting it up,” Trump told a reporter during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Trump added, referring to Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a conflict Trump has vowed to quickly end when he takes office this month.
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The Kremlin said Friday it was open to a Trump-Putin meeting. It said nothing had been confirmed yet.
“If, after taking office, the political will to resume contacts at the highest level remains, then of course President Putin will only welcome this,” his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a press conference, state media reported.
There was no immediate reaction from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government.
President Joe Biden has committed billions in aid and military assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded it in February 2022. Trump’s imminent return to the White House has raised hopes of a diplomatic solution to the nearly three-year-old conflict. It has also sparked concerns any peace deal might come at a heavy price for Ukraine.
Trump has expressed skepticism about continuing U.S. security assistance for Ukraine and some of his advisers such as Keith Kellogg, who he’s nominated to be his special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, have floated proposals to end the war that could see Ukraine cede large parts of the country to Russia.
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Trump has spoken often about his good relationship with Putin and how it could help end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours.” This week, Trump said six months might be a more realistic goal to accomplish that.
“I hope to have six months,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “I hope long before six months.”
Trump and Putin met at least five times during Trump’s first term at various summits from Finland to Vietnam.
