U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said again that he is eager to see negotiations with Russia on ending the war in Ukraine begin soon after he returns to the White House but gave no specifics on when they would take place.
Trump said he wants to see negotiations soon because “Russia is losing a lot of young people and so is Ukraine.”
Trump, who spoke with reporters at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, didn’t say whether or how soon he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin but said such a meeting would not be appropriate until after he is inaugurated on January 20.
"I can't tell you that, but I know Putin would like to meet," Trump said.
At the end of December, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were no preconditions for a meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents.
The president-elect said during his election campaign he could end the conflict in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. At the news conference Trump said he hoped to end the fighting within six months.
"I hope long before six months," Trump said, when asked if he could solve the war within half a year.
Trump’s return to the White House brings with it uncertainty on what impact it will have on the nearly three-year-old conflict and whether negotiations can take place. But Trump told the news conference he is determined to get it "straightened out," adding that it is "a tough one."
Ukrainian officials are concerned that any hastily arranged negotiations could allow Russia to hold on to Ukrainian territory it has seized and would also give Russian forces time to rest and reorganize.
The Ukrainians also want to encourage Trump to continue U.S. military support for their country. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha announced on January 7 that a trip to Ukraine by Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia had been canceled and would have to be rescheduled.
The envoy, Keith Kellogg, has been tasked with leading negotiations to end the war. Kellogg has said that potential cease-fire talks could begin once Trump takes office and, in a December interview with Fox News, said the war could "be resolved in the next few months."
The planned meetings between Kellogg and Ukrainian officials are “extremely important,” Sybiha said during a news conference with his visiting Icelandic counterpart.
“I am confident that this meeting will take place in due course,” he told reporters in Kyiv. “We are in contact to clearly define the timeline for its organization and to ensure that the meeting is as meaningful as possible.”
Ramstein Meeting
Trump was not asked about a report that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is set to announce a massive final military aid package for Ukraine as part of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit to Germany on January 9.
Austin is scheduled to meet with representatives of about 50 partner nations in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at an air base in Ramstein, Germany.
The package is expected to be “substantial," according to two officials who briefed reporters on Austin’s trip. The officials did not provide an exact dollar amount.
Austin's trip will be his final meeting with the contact group, which he organized after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Together those nations have provided more than $126 billion in weapons, military training, and assistance since the war started. The U.S. portion of the total is $66 billion.
The package to be announced later this week will draw from existing U.S. stockpiles with a goal of getting most of the weapons to Ukraine by the time Trump is sworn in, one of the officials said.
Trump also urged NATO members to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, up from the current 2 percent target, reinforcing his long-held claim that they are not paying enough for U.S. protection.