US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he met his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, as reiterated that the war between Russia and Ukraine must end. The 79-year-old Republican president further said he would meet Russia's Vladimir Putin soon, discussing ways to end the conflict that broke out in February 2022.
"I met President Zelenskyy here; the meeting was good. We (US delegation) are meeting President Putin today or tomorrow," Trump said. "The war has to end. A lot of people have been killed."
Trump had met Putin during a summit in Alaska in August last year. The two leaders had described the talks as wonderful and said that they would hold another meeting. Trump had also indicated about a possible trilateral meeting between him, Putin and Zelenskyy. However, talks have been hit following the Alaska Summit, with Trump occasionally even criticising the Russian side.
Ukraine-Russia talks 'down to one issue'
According to US special envoy Steve Witkoff, all the sides have made "a lot of progress" and talks are "down to one issue". Witkoff, along with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, is also scheduled to visit to Moscow where he would hold talks with the Russian side. However, he has said that it would be just a day-long visit and the two will not stay in Moscow overnight.
"I think we've got it down to one issue, and we have discussed iterations of that issue, and that means it's solvable. So if both sides want to solve this, we're going to get it solved," Witkoff said at a Ukrainian event on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Trump questions NATO
Notably, Trump recently also criticised the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a US-led military alliance formed during the Cold War, saying Washington has not benefitted from it. According to Trump, US is "very far away" from Ukraine and it has "nothing to do" with the war in Europe, while adding that his NATO partners do not appreciate of what Washington is doing.
"What does the United States get out of all of this work, all of this money, other than death, destruction and massive amounts of cash going to people who don't appreciate what we do?" he said. "They don't appreciate what we do. I'm talking about NATO, I'm talking about Europe."
