President Volodymyr Zelensky "would like to make a deal" and "stop the madness" regarding the war in Ukraine, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform following a meeting with the Ukrainian president in Paris on Dec. 7.
Trump and Zelensky met in Paris as world leaders gathered in the city for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral. French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the two for their first in person meeting since Trump won the elections in November.
"Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness … There should be an immediate ceasefire, and negotiations should begin," Trump said in his post.
"Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse," he wrote.
Zelensky addressed Trump's post on his Telegram channel on Dec. 8, saying the war “cannot be ended simply with a piece of paper and a few signatures,” warning that “a ceasefire without guarantees can be reignited at any moment, as (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has already done in the past.”
“To ensure there are no more Ukrainian losses, we must secure a reliable peace,” Zelensky added.“Turning a blind eye to occupation is not an option,” he said.
Trump's statement follows a presidential campaign in which he famously asserted that he could resolve the conflict within 24 hours if he were in charge, and an alleged phone call with Putin, during which Trump advised the Russian leader "not to escalate the situation in Ukraine."
Trump's statement also comes in the wake of the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, which the president-elect appears in his post to attribute to Russia's growing disinterest in the region.
"Assad is gone … His protector, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer," Trump also wrote in his post.
"They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever," he then added.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan echoed these statements, agreeing with comments made by Trump on X, in which Trump had stated that the situation in Syria arose because Russia is "so tied up in Ukraine" and has suffered heavy losses.
Indeed, state-controlled media outlet TASS reported that Deputy Speaker of the Russian Federation Council Konstantin Kosachev said that Russia will "continue to support the people of Syria if necessary," but that "Syrians will have to handle the full-scale civil war on their own."
However, despite such claims, the Ukrainian military intelligence agency (HUR) reported that even as Aleppo fell on Dec. 3, Russia was still sending private mercenaries to support both Syrian and Russian troops in the country.
The Kyiv IndependentOleg Sukhov