Trump says Putin wants meeting as soon as possible on Ukraine war

President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had expressed interest in a meeting about 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 this to happen, but we have to end that war. That war is horrible, horrible.”

Trump, who will return to the White House in January, said earlier during the election campaign that if elected he could end the war “within 24 hours.” The president-elect recently criticized President Joe Biden’s policy change that allowed Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied weapons to attack inside Russian territory.

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

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

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

– NBC News contributed reporting.