US President-elect Donald Trump delivers speeches at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US, December 16, 2024.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump – said the president of Russia on Sunday Vladimir Putin expressed interest in meeting on the war with Ukraine.
“President Putin said he wants to meet with me as soon as possible,” Trump said during his remarks at the America Fest convention at Turning Point. “So we have to wait for it, but we have to end this war. This war is terrible, terrible.”
Trump, who is scheduled to return to the White House in January, said during the campaign that if elected he could end the war “in 24 hours.” President-elect recently criticized policy changes by the president Joe Biden which enabled Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied weapons to strike Russian territory.
The president-elect also recently said Ukraine They will “probably” receive less military aid as soon as he takes office. Ukraine is highly dependent on its international partners for military, financial and humanitarian aid, which enables it to continue functioning as a state and fight against Russia after almost three years of war.
“The number of soldiers killed…,” Trump said on Sunday. “It's a flat plane, bullets are flying, there are powerful bullets, powerful guns, and the only thing that can stop them is the human body.”
Earlier this month, Trump met with the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris with the President of France Emmanuel Macron Before reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. After the meeting, Trump called for an “immediate ceasefire.”
—NBC News contributed reporting.