Trump calls for ‘immediate’ cease-fire in Ukraine, says U.S. withdrawal from NATO is possible
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump on Sunday pushed Russian President Vladimir Putin to act to reach an immediate cease-fire with Ukraine, describing it as part of his active efforts as president-elect to end the war despite being weeks from taking office.
“Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness,” Trump wrote on social media, referring to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump also said he would be open to reducing military aid to Ukraine and pulling the United States out of NATO, in a television interview that aired Sunday.
Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” if he were actively working to end the nearly 3-year-old Ukraine war, Trump said, “I am.”
He refused to say if he had spoken to Putin since winning election in November. “I don’t want to say anything about that, because I don’t want to do anything that could impede the negotiation,” Trump said.
Trump’s call for an immediate cease-fire went beyond the public policy stands taken by the Biden administration and Ukraine and drew a cautious response from Zelensky. It also marks Trump wading unusually deeply into efforts before his Jan. 20 inauguration to resolve one of the major global crises facing the lame-duck Biden administration.
The Trump comments came after a weekend meeting with French and Ukrainian leaders in Paris, where many world leaders gathered to celebrate the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral after a devastating fire. None of the advisors traveling with him appeared to have expertise on Ukraine.
“There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
“I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act.” Trump added.
President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin share some traits and want some of the same things. But a chasm divides them.
Zelensky had described his discussions Saturday with Trump, brought together by French President Emmanuel Macron, as “constructive” but gave no further details. In a post Sunday on the Telegram messaging app, Zelensky cautioned that Ukraine needs a “just and robust peace, that Russians will not destroy within a few years.”
“When we talk about an effective peace with Russia, we must talk first of all about effective peace guarantees. Ukrainians want peace more than anyone else. Russia brought war to our land,” Zelensky said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Moscow’s long-standing message that it is open to talks with Ukraine. He referenced a decree by Zelensky from October 2022 that declared talks “impossible” as long as Putin was Russia’s leader.
Ukrainians fear Trump will cut off military aid for the war against Russia, even as Ukraine’s leader aims to win him over with congratulations and praise.
That decree came after Putin proclaimed four occupied regions of Ukraine to be a part of Russia, in what Kyiv and the West said was a violation of Ukrainian sovereignty.
For most of the war, Kyiv’s official position has been to call for a full withdrawal of Russian troops from internationally recognized Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, which Russia invaded and claimed to have annexed in 2014, as a condition for peace talks.
In a separate social media update, Zelensky asserted that Kyiv has lost 43,000 soldiers since Moscow’s all-out invasion began Feb. 24, 2022, and that 370,000 have been wounded. Trump had claimed that each side had lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Russia and Ukraine have been reluctant to publish official casualty figures.
The Biden administration and other supporters of Ukraine in the United States and abroad have made a point of not being seen to press Ukraine for an immediate truce. Ukraine’s allies fear a quick deal would be largely on the terms of its more powerful neighbor, forcing damaging concessions on Ukraine and allowing Russia to potentially resume the war again once it has rebuilt its military.
In the interview that aired Sunday, Trump renewed his warning to North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies that he did not see continued U.S. participation in the Western military alliance as a given.
Trump has long argued that European and the Canadian governments in the mutual-defense bloc are freeloading on military spending by the U.S. NATO and its member governments say a majority of countries in the bloc are now hitting voluntary spending targets.
Asked in the “Meet the Press” interview taped Friday whether he would consider pulling out of NATO, Trump said, “If they’re paying their bills, and if I think they’re treating us fairly, the answer is absolutely I’d stay with NATO.”
But if not, he was asked if he would consider pulling the U.S. out of the alliance. He responded, “Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.”
Associated Press writer Kozlowska reported from London, Knickmeyer from Washington.
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