Trump seeks to meet Putin while Biden announces an aid package for Kiev

President-elect Donald Trump has raised the possibility of a meeting with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to end the “bloody chaos” in Ukraine, while the outgoing Joe Biden administration has pushed for a final aid package for its ally Kiev.

Trump said during a press conference held on Thursday: “He wants to meet and… we are arranging that,” indicating that he prefers to postpone the meeting until after his inauguration as president on January 20. The meeting will be held as a summit or state visit.

Trump said: “President Putin wants to meet. He even said so publicly. We have to end this war. It is a bloody mess. Soldiers are being killed by the millions.” “The biggest surprise, which will be a very unpleasant surprise, is the number of people killed in that war.”

Historically, Trump has enjoyed a friendlier relationship with Putin than many Western heads of state, who have increasingly distanced themselves from the Kremlin since Moscow invaded its Eastern European neighbor in February 2022.

The strength of Trump's relationship with Putin has come under scrutiny in a nearly two-year investigation by the special counsel into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump, who cruised to victory in the vote, has denied allegations that he was under the Kremlin's influence.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Putin is ready to meet Trump without reservations. comments As reported by the Russian news agency TASS. He added that the details of such a rapprochement It has not been agreed yet This is likely to happen until Trump is inaugurated, noting that Russia welcomes the president-elect's intentions to return to dialogue.

Western-led efforts to broker a peace arrangement, along with the frameworks of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and influential Chinese mediator Xi Jinping, have yet to be mutually accepted or bear fruit. Moscow and Kiev have so far set mutually contradictory red lines, refusing to join the negotiating table unless they are allowed to retain the territories they annexed or until Russian forces leave Ukrainian territory, respectively.

Trump's openness to contact with Putin represents a departure from the relationship led over the past two years by the Biden administration, a staunch supporter of Ukraine throughout the conflict.

The Biden administration has allocated nearly $65.9 billion in security assistance to Kiev since the beginning of the invasion As of January 8th. On Thursday, the US Department of Defense announced $500 billion aid payment to Ukrainejust 10 days before Biden's scheduled departure from the White House.

Questions remain about the extent of US involvement in the devastating war in Ukraine, which enters its third year next month and which has indirectly caused higher energy prices and global inflation due to Western sanctions on Russian resources. Trump had previously declared that he was able to resolve the devastating war in Ukraine within an ambitious 24-hour deadline, without revealing his methods or offering a concrete proposal for a ceasefire.

He has also strongly criticized US expenditures to support Ukraine's defences, questioned continued US involvement in NATO's military alliance, and once described Zelensky as “perhaps the greatest salesman of any politician ever”, in reference to aid being delivered to Ukraine. Ukraine was more the result of the Ukrainian leader's political prowess than his country's actual needs.

Overall, Trump's comments and emerging signs of commercial nationalism have raised broader concerns that potential pressure from the White House or withdrawal of US military support could persuade resource-dependent Kiev to a diplomatic conclusion involving territorial concessions to the invaders.

Ukraine expects a meeting between Trump and Zelensky shortly after the US President-elect takes office, ministry spokesman Heorhi Tykhyi said on Friday.