U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wanted to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as possible to secure an end to the war with Ukraine and expressed a desire to work towards cutting nuclear arms, Reuters reports.
In the run-up to his Nov. 5 election victory, Trump declared many times that he would have a deal in place between Ukraine and Russia on his first day in office, if not before. His advisers now concede the war will take months to resolve.
"And that's not from the standpoint of economy or anything else. It's from the standpoint of millions of lives are being wasted ... It's a carnage. And we really have to stop that war."
Speaking at the White House later in the day, Trump told reporters he was ready to meet with Putin as soon as possible to end what he called a ridiculous war.
Trump added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had told him he was ready to make a deal to end the war.
Trump told participants in Davos that U.S. efforts to secure a peace settlement were now hopefully under way, but gave no details. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
