KYIV, Ukraine – In a striking call for tranquility amidst the chaos, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, on a Sunday marked by important discussions in Paris with leaders from France and Ukraine, urgently advocated for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Ukraine. He voiced a potent assertion: Kyiv is eager to negotiate a resolution to a conflict that has unfolded over an agonizing span of more than 1,000 days.
Taking to his Truth Social platform, Trump painted a somber picture of the human cost of war, declaring that both Moscow and Kyiv have suffered the tremendous loss of hundreds of thousands of soldiers in a confrontation that, in his view, “should never have started.”
“There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives are being needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed,” Trump stated emphatically, imploring Russian President Vladimir Putin to take decisive action to halt the conflict.
His comments were borne out of a Saturday rendezvous that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and French President Emmanuel Macron attended, which Zelenskyy later characterized as “constructive” and potentially fruitful.
Later that same day, amid a backdrop of relentless warfare, Zelenskyy, addressing reporters, underscored that any forthcoming peace agreement must be “just” for the Ukrainian people, ensuring that aggressors, including Putin, are definitively barred from future incursions.
In a stark reflection of the current toll, Zelenskyy revealed in a separate social media update that Ukraine has endured the loss of 43,000 soldiers since the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, with a staggering 370,000 more wounded.
While both nations have been hesitant to disclose official casualty statistics, Western officials have signaled alarming trends: the grinding nature of positional warfare in the eastern front has led to record casualties on both sides, with tens of thousands reported as killed or injured each month.
