Trump meets with Putin to end war in Ukraine

2025-01-24 08:23:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

United States President Donald Trump has said he wants to meet immediately with Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach an agreement that ends Russia's full occupation of Ukraine.

"From what I've heard, Putin wants to meet with me, and we'll do it as soon as possible. I would meet with him right away," Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.

Trump stressed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has told him he is ready to make a deal to end the war.

Meanwhile, speaking via video link at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said Thursday that he wants to meet Putin soon, adding that U.S. efforts to secure a peace deal have begun, but he did not provide details. During last year's presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would end the war quickly, and again just days before taking office. Now, he says it could take months.

Meanwhile, Zelensky also spoke at the World Economic Forum, where he said a peacekeeping force of 200,000 troops is needed to ensure and guarantee any future ceasefire agreement with Russia.

He added that such a peacekeeping force would be just one part of the overall security guarantees that Kiev would need if ceasefire talks with Putin begin.

Earlier, Zelensky told Bloomberg News that for a peacekeeping force to be effective, American troops must be part of it.

"It can't be without the United States," he told Bloomberg.

"First, no one will take risks without the United States. Second, this could split NATO, split the United States and the European Union. It is Putin's dream to split this alliance," he added.

A peacekeeping force of 200,000 troops would be an unprecedented effort for Europe, far larger than the individual forces of most nations. The NATO-led international mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina peaked in 1996 with 60,000 troops, about a third of them from the United States.

Zelensky said that such a large international force would be necessary given that Russia's military personnel exceed 1.5 million, while Ukraine has only half that number.

The deployment of a foreign military force in Ukraine is being discussed with countries that may be willing to participate, Zelensky said during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on January 16.

The British press also reported that Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have discussed the possibility of sending soldiers to Ukraine as a peacekeeping force after some agreement is reached to end the war.

The new US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, spoke by phone on January 23 with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and discussed the importance of ending the war in Ukraine.

The State Department said Rubio also reaffirmed the US commitment to NATO after Trump said he was "not sure" whether the United States should spend anything on the alliance, while pushing other member countries to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP.

Zelensky said his team is "currently in the process" of arranging a face-to-face meeting with Trump, who began his second term on January 20.

In recent days, Trump has made his harshest comments to date towards Putin, whom he has often spoken of with admiration.

On January 22, Trump, addressing his Russian counterpart by name, warned Moscow that it would face "high" new tariffs, taxes, and sanctions if it did not quickly stop its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A day earlier, he suggested he would impose additional sanctions on Russia if Putin did not accept peace talks to end the war.

And on January 20, on his first day in office, Trump said that Putin was "destroying" Russia by refusing to make a deal to end the war.

"He should make a deal. I think he's destroying Russia by not making a deal," Trump said.

Russia has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the war, suffered some 700,000 casualties and angered its neighbors, while also sacrificing the lucrative European gas market and access to Western financial markets, which has led to a collapse in the value of the ruble.

The Kremlin is spending about 40 percent of its budget on the military and is having great difficulty curbing inflation despite interest rates above 20 percent.

The war in Ukraine began in 2014 with the Kremlin's illegal invasion and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and escalated with its full occupation by Russia in February 2022./ Rel