Trump has previously criticized the US's support to Ukraine during the full-scale Russian invasion war. During the presidential campaign, he hinted that good relations with Russia's President Vladimir Putin would lead to a quick end to the war.
Trump said on Monday that he wants to hold talks with both the Russian and Ukrainian sides. The incoming president then compared the Russian destruction in Ukraine to his own construction projects in the USA:
It's just rubble. Just like when I tear down a house on Manhattan – but it's worse (in Ukraine), since we do it step by step.
However, the American initiative was simultaneously countered by Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who during a visit to Brussels ahead of upcoming NATO talks on Ukraine demanded cooperation between the incoming US government and the EU to force Russia to the negotiating table.
Considering that a new government is taking office in the USA, we in Europe must mobilize more, said Sikorski, adding that it is "the aggressor, not the victim, who should be encouraged and forced" to initiate negotiations.
