President-elect Donald Trump called on Sunday for a ceasefire in Ukraine, after which meeting with world leaders in Paris that Ukraine and its president “would like to make a deal and stop the madness.”
“It must be stopped immediately and negotiations must begin,” Trump wrote in a post on social media, calling for war. Russia and Ukraine one that “must not begin, and may continue forever.”
Trump was in Paris on Saturday to attend the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral and met with world leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron. This meeting marked Trump’s first face-to-face meeting with the president of Ukraine since he won the presidential election in November.
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The president-elect has repeatedly pledged to end the war between Russia and Ukraine as soon as he returns to the White House while saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have attacked the country if he had been president.
Trump, who has offered few details on how he would end the war, said Sunday that “I know Vladimir very well,” adding that “it’s time for him to act.”
Zelenskyy said Sunday he had a “good meeting” with Trump, explaining that he told the president-elect that Ukraine needs a “just and lasting peace” where “the Russians will not be able to destroy it in a few years, as they have done repeatedly in the past.”
The Ukrainian president said in a post on social media that the war “cannot just end with a piece of paper and a few signatures,” urging that a ceasefire “without guarantees can be ruled at any time.” Zelenskyy asserted that Putin “can be stopped only by force – the force of world leaders who are leaders of peace.”
“We are counting on America and the rest of the world to help stop Putin,” Zelenskyy said. “The only things they fear are America and global solidarity.”
The US on Saturday announced a new $988 million military aid package to Ukraine. The package includes drones, ammunition for HIMARS rocket launchers, and equipment and spare parts for weapons systems, tanks and armored vehicles, the Pentagon said in a statement.
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