Donald Trump has stated {that a} assembly is being organized between himself and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The US president-elect gave no timeline for when the assembly may happen.
“He desires to fulfill and we’re setting it up,” he stated in remarks at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The Kremlin stated in response that it was open to the talks, however that no particulars had been confirmed but.
Trump has promised to barter an finish to the warfare in Ukraine quickly after he takes workplace on 20 January and has expressed scepticism about US army and monetary help for Kyiv.
“President Putin desires to fulfill,” he stated on Thursday.
“He has stated that even publicly and now we have to get that warfare over with. That is a bloody mess.”
A spokesman for Ukraine’s international ministry stated on Friday that Kyiv anticipated high-level talks to happen with the Trump administration after the inauguration.
This contains an eventual assembly between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The president-elect has nominated Keith Kellogg, a former nationwide safety adviser and retired lieutenant-general within the US army, to be particular envoy to Ukraine and Russia for his second administration.
Kellogg set out his concepts for a way the US might result in an finish to the warfare in a analysis paper printed by the America First Coverage Institute, a pro-Trump suppose tank, in April final yr.
He proposed that Ukraine ought to solely get additional US assist if it agreed to take part in peace talks with Moscow.
The paper additionally recommended, nevertheless, that if Moscow refused to participate then the US ought to proceed its assist to Ukraine.
Following Trump’s election win in November, Zelensky stated he believed that, with Trump as president, the warfare would “finish sooner” than it in any other case would have.
He stated the 2 had had a “constructive alternate” by cellphone, although didn’t say whether or not Trump had made any calls for concerning potential talks with Russia.