US President-elect Donald Trump announced that he intends to meet with Putin "very soon" after he returns to the White House on January 20, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The day before yesterday, a close aide to Trump said that he would speak by phone with Putin in the coming days or weeks. The conflict in Ukraine has become a "meat grinder for people and resources" like World War I, but "with consequences like World War III", said Mike Walz, a Republican from the House of Representatives whom the future US president has chosen as his national security adviser, in an interview with ABC television, adding that it is unrealistic to expect a complete withdrawal of Russia from Ukraine.
Yesterday, Trump told the "Newsmax" television station that he intends to meet "very soon" with Putin, but did not specify a specific timetable.
This would be the first meeting between US and Russian presidents since the war in Ukraine began nearly three years ago.
"And I know that (Putin) wants to meet, and it will happen very soon. I would do it sooner, but...(it is better) to take office. For some of the things, you have to be (in the White House)", Trump said. Without going into details, he said that "there is only one strategy" and it all depends on Putin, "for whom things are not going very well either."
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has likely killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions from their homes. The war has caused the deepest rift in relations between Moscow and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Reuters notes.