US President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday, the 9th of January, that a meeting between him and Russian President Vladimir Putin is being planned, but the Republican did not offer a time when the two leaders could talk, according to the British broadcaster BBC and Reuters.
Trump has promised to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine soon after taking office on the 20th of January and has expressed scepticism about US military and financial support for Kyiv.
“He wants to meet, and we’re setting it up,” Trump said before a meeting with Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
“President Putin wants to meet. He has even said so publicly, and we have to end this war. It’s a bloody mess,” Trump said of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump has nominated Keith Kellogg, a former national security adviser and retired US army lieutenant general, as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia in his second administration.
BNN already reported that Kellogg told Fox News on Wednesday that Trump will find a solution to the war very soon, defining this period as 100 days after inauguration, is not trying to give anything to Putin and the peace he will achieve will be equitable and fair.
However, in April last year, Kellogg suggested in his study that the US should provide assistance to Ukraine if it participated in peace talks with Moscow, and that if Moscow refused to participate in the talks, the US should continue to support Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Thursday that the Ramstein meeting with Western allies had resulted in two billion US dollars in military aid. He said that 34 countries had pledged various forms of support in the 34-month war against Russia.
Zelenskyy said the aid covered air defence, information technology, demining, naval forces, air force and artillery, but gave no details of which countries had made pledges, adding that “all this will strengthen Ukraine”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had earlier announced that Washington would provide Ukraine with an additional 500 million US dollars in military assistance, including air defence missiles, air-to-surface munitions and equipment for F-16 fighter jets.
Following a meeting with allies in Germany, Zelenskyy met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome, where he said he discussed improving Ukraine’s air defences and efforts to build a united position to move towards a resolution of the war.
Trump says meeting with Putin being organised; allies pledge two billion dollars in aid for Ukraine
