A souvenir shop owner is displaying matryoshka dolls depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and US presidents, including Donald Trump.
Misha Friedman | Getty Images News | Getty Images
President-elect Donald Trump has hinted that he may meet with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to end the “bloody chaos” in Ukraine, but the outgoing Joe Biden administration will continue to seek support from hard-hit ally Kiev. The government implemented final support measures.
“He wants to meet with us and we are making arrangements to do so,” Trump said at a press conference Thursday, adding that he would like to hold off on meeting him until after the presidential inauguration ceremony on January 20. The meeting will be held as a summit meeting or a state visit.
“President Putin wants to meet with us. He’s said so publicly. And we have to end that war. It’s a bloody mess,” Trump said.
Trump has historically had a friendlier relationship with Putin than many Western heads of state, who have increasingly distanced themselves from the Kremlin since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of its Eastern European neighbor.
The strength of President Trump’s relationship with President Putin was the subject of scrutiny in the special counsel’s nearly two-year investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump, who won the vote, denied claims that he was influenced by the Kremlin.
In comments on Google Translate reported by Russia’s state-run TASS news agency, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that President Putin is ready to meet with President Trump without hesitation. He added that the details of such an approach have not yet been agreed upon and would likely be put on hold until President Trump’s inauguration, noting that Russia welcomes the president-elect’s intention to return to dialogue.
Western-led efforts to broker a peace deal, along with the respective frameworks of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and China’s influential mediator Xi Jinping, are not yet mutually acceptable and have not borne fruit. Moscow and Kiev have so far set mutually contradictory red lines, each refusing to come to the negotiating table unless they are allowed to keep their annexed territory or until Russian forces withdraw from Ukrainian soil. I am doing it.
Trump’s openness to working with Putin marks a departure from the relationship the Biden administration has ushered in over the past two years, having been a staunch supporter of Ukraine throughout the conflict.
The Biden administration has pledged about $65.9 billion in security aid to Kiev since the invasion began on January 8. On Thursday, the Pentagon announced a $500 million aid tranche to Ukraine, just 10 days before President Biden’s planned withdrawal from Ukraine. white house.
Questions remain about the extent of US involvement in the devastating war in Ukraine. The Ukraine war enters its third year next month, with Western sanctions on Russian resources indirectly contributing to soaring energy prices and global inflation. President Trump has previously claimed he can resolve the devastating war in Ukraine within an ambitious “24-hour” deadline, without revealing his method or offering a concrete cease-fire proposal. I’ve done it.
He also sharply criticized U.S. spending to strengthen Ukraine’s defenses, questioned the U.S.’s continued participation in the NATO military alliance, and once called Zelenskiy “probably the greatest salesman of all time.” I even called him. Ukraine was more a result of the political skill of its leaders than its own actual needs.
President Trump’s comments and budding signs of trade nationalism, taken together, suggest that potential White House pressure and a withdrawal of U.S. military aid could force resource-dependent Kiev into a diplomatic denouement with territorial concessions to the aggressor. There has been widespread concern that the
Ukraine expects the Trump-Zelensky meeting to be held soon after the U.S. president-elect takes office, a ministry spokesperson said on Friday, according to Reuters.
Correction: On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Defense announced a $500 million aid tranche to Ukraine. The diagram was misspelled in previous versions.
