U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said he "very vehemently" disagrees with Ukraine using U.S.-made missiles to strike targets "hundreds of miles" inside Russia, the Time magazine reported on Dec. 12.
Members of Trump's inner circle previously criticized the outgoing Biden administration's decision to ease restrictions on long-range strikes, though this is the first time the president-elect has spoken against it publicly himself.
"I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that?" Trump told Time as the magazine named him Person of the Year.
"We’re just escalating this war and making it worse."
The U.S. president-elect has criticized the level of support the Biden administration provided to Ukraine and signaled Kyiv should brace for reduced assistance once he takes office in January.
While he boasted many times during his campaign that he would end the war within 24 hours, Trump admitted to Time that Russia's invasion is even more complex than the situation in the Middle East.
"The numbers of dead young soldiers lying on fields all over the place are staggering. It’s crazy what’s taking place."
When asked whether he would cut aid to Ukraine, Trump said instead he would use the U.S. aid as leverage to push the Kremlin to the negotiating table.
"I want to reach an agreement, and the only way you’re going to reach an agreement is not to abandon."
Trump met President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris on Dec. 7 to discuss the ongoing war. Reuters wrote that while the two did not discuss specifics of any concrete peace plan, Trump called for an immediate ceasefire while Zelensky stressed the need for security guarantees.
Following his meeting with Zelensky, Trump said the Ukrainian leader is ready "to make a deal and stop the madness" and that Putin should do the same after incurring staggering losses in Ukraine.
"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," Trump wrote on Social Truth on Dec. 8.
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 Putin has already done in the past."
The Ukrainian president has signaled openness to a diplomatic end to the war as the Russian advance picked up pace in the east while Ukraine's resources grow thin.
The Kyiv IndependentOleksiy Sorokin