Trump says he wants to meet Russia’s Putin soon to ensure end of Ukraine war

DAVOS, Switzerland – US President Donald Trump said on Jan 23 he wanted to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon to secure an end to the war with Ukraine and expressed a desire to work towards cutting nuclear arms.

In the run-up to

his Nov 5 election victory,

Mr Trump declared many times that he would have a deal in place between Ukraine and Russia on his first day in office, if not before.

His advisers now concede that the war will take months to resolve.

“I really would like to be able to meet with President Putin soon to get that war ended,” Mr Trump, who returned to the White House on Jan 20, told the World Economic Forum in Davos by video link.

“And that’s not from the standpoint of economy or anything else. It’s from the standpoint of millions of lives are being wasted... It’s a carnage. And we really have to stop that war.”

Mr Trump also said US efforts to secure a peace settlement were now hopefully under way, but gave no details. Russia began its

full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Earlier this week, Mr Trump

threatened to impose “high levels” of sanctions on Russia

and tariffs on imports from there if Moscow did not reach a settlement.

Mr Trump also told the crowd on Jan 23 he wants to work towards cutting nuclear arms, adding that he thought Russia and China might support reducing their own weapons capabilities.

“We’d like to see denuclearisation... and I will tell you President Putin really liked the idea of cutting way back on nuclear. And I think the rest of the world, we would have gotten them to follow, and China would have come along too,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Putin

has threatened to use nuclear weapons

in his war against Ukraine. He has been modernising his nuclear forces and rejected talks with Washington on replacing New Start, the last US-Russia arms limitation pact, when it expires on Feb 5, 2026.

In November 2024, US officials

said Mr Putin remains within the limits set by the treaty

despite his 2023 suspension of the pact that holds Russia and the United States to deploying 1,550 strategic nuclear warheads on 700 intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and bombers. REUTERS