Trump says Zelensky is ready for peace

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is ready for “peace” as he met with world leaders during his trip to Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame, NY Post reports.

The incoming U.S. president revealed Sunday details of his conversations with world leaders on his first trip abroad since winning a second term, including a trilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and Zelensky.

“He wants to make peace,” Trump told The Post in a phone interview. “That’s new.”

“He wants to have a ceasefire,” he added. “He wants to make peace. We didn’t talk about the details. He thinks it’s time, and Putin should think it’s time because he’s lost — when you lose 700,000 people, it’s time. It’s not going to end until there’s a peace.”

He said he spoke to Zelensky about how to end the bloody conflict.

“I’m formulating a concept of how to end that ridiculous war,” he said.

Trump also revealed he spoke to Macron about NATO, reiterating that he thinks the alliance should “pay their fair share.”

“I said NATO is good as long as they pay their bills, but they gotta pay their bills, because you know, when I got involved with NATO nobody paid, and then they paid after I got involved,” the president elect said.

“He agrees with me,” Trump said of Macron. “He’s a good man, he did a good job. I told him, ‘you have no idea how good a job you did’ on that chapel. That’s very hard to do. Painstaking.”

Throughout his election campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would end the Ukraine conflict within “24 hours” of taking office.

The US has allocated $131.36 billion for Ukraine since February 2022, according to figures published by the Pentagon earlier this month. Just under $90 billion of this amount has actually been transferred, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, RT reported. Trump has said he will “probably” reduce American aid to Ukraine once he takes office.