The Ukrainian leader previously questioned the US president-elect’s ability to end the conflict with Russia
Vladimir Zelensky “wants to make peace” with Russia, US President-elect Donald Trump has told the New York Post following a meeting with the Ukrainian leader over the weekend in France.
Trump and Zelensky met, together with French President Emmanuel Macron, in connection with the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, which was reconstructed after a fire in 2019. Axios sources claimed that the US president-elect was reluctant to agree to the meeting, but Macron convinced him over the course of several days.
Speaking to the newspaper on the phone, Trump said the intention to seek peace communicated by Zelensky is “new,” adding “He wants to have a ceasefire. He wants to make peace. We didn’t talk about the details.”
In a post on Truth Social prior the interview, Trump said both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin should “make a deal and stop the madness” due to the number of casualties suffered by the two nations in the conflict.
Moscow and Kiev have both disputed Trump’s casualty numbers, which were in the hundreds of thousands. Zelensky responded in a post on X, insisting that the conflict “cannot simply end with a piece of paper and a few signatures.”
In a separate interview with NBC News on Sunday, Trump said he would “probably” cut aid to Kiev after he is sworn in in January. The administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden has pledged to spend every dollar allocated by Congress for Ukraine before his term expires. Total US military aid since February 2022 stands at over $130 billion, the Pentagon reported earlier this month.
Ukrainian troops have suffered a series of defeats on the battleground this year and are undermined by low morale, desertions, and a lack of reinforcements. Moscow has said it will not accept a peace deal that would allow Kiev to rebuild its military and renew the conflict later.
A draft truce that the two nations agreed to in 2022 would have made Ukraine a neutral nation with a capped army strength in exchange for international security guarantees. Zelensky eventually decided to pursue military victory instead, in what Moscow perceives as a Western proxy war against Russia. It is being waged “to the last Ukrainian,” Russian officials have said.
