US President-elect Donald Trump said yesterday (Thursday) that his team has begun preparing to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to “end” the war in Ukraine.

“He wants us to meet, and we’ve started to set it up,” Mr Trump said during a meeting with Republican state governors at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.

“President Putin wants us to meet, he has even said so publicly, and we have to get this war (in Ukraine over with, which is a real cyclone,” the tycoon added.

During his annual live televised interview, Mr. Putin assured that he was ready to meet with Mr. Trump “at any time”.

“If we meet one day with President-elect Trump, I am sure we will have many things to say” to each other, he threw in.

Donald Trump, who will take office on January 20, often promised on the campaign trail that he would end the war in Ukraine within “24 hours” and has called for an “immediate ceasefire” and the resumption of Moscow-Kiev negotiations.

Europeans and Ukrainians have expressed concerns that it could force Kyiv to make major concessions and offer a geopolitical victory to the Kremlin, while under outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden, Washington has been the main backer of the Ukrainian armed forces since the invasion of Russian troops in February 2022, providing them with more than $65 billion worth of equipment.