Trump says Putin wants a meeting as soon as possible about Ukraine war

President-elect Donald Trump said the Russian president on Sunday Vladimir Putin expressed his interest in a meeting regarding the war with Ukraine.

“President Putin said he wants to meet with me as soon as possible,” Trump said during his remarks at Turning Point’s America Fest convention. “So we have to wait for it, but we have to end that war. This war is horrible, horrible.”

Trump, who will return to the White House in January, previously said on the campaign trail that if elected, he could end the war “within 24 hours.” The president-elect recently criticized the change of policy by the president Joe Biden which allowed Ukraine to use US-supplied weapons to attack inside Russian territory.

The president-elect also said recently in Ukraine will “possibly” receive less military aid once he takes office. Ukraine is very dependent on its international partners for military, financial and humanitarian aid that allows it to continue to function as a state, and fight Russia after almost three years of war.

“The number of soldiers that are killed…” Trump said on Sunday. “It’s a flat plane, and the bullets go and there are powerful bullets, powerful guns, and the only thing that stops them is a human body.”

Earlier this month, Trump met with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris with the French president Emmanuel Macron in front of the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. After the meeting, Trump called for an “immediate ceasefire.”

— NBC News contributed reporting.