President-elect Donald Trump’s national security team has held talks with the White House and Ukrainian leaders as part of a joint effort to find a way to end the war with Russia, multiple sources with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.
Trump’s advisers and Cabinet nominees, who have differing positions on Ukraine, have yet to present a conceptual or specific peace plan to Kiev, the sources said.
The president-elect has vowed to end the conflict before he is inaugurated next month, calling the casualties on both sides “a tragedy.” But he has sent mixed signals in his public comments, urging Russia to make peace but also suggesting he might scale back U.S. military aid to Ukraine or reimpose restrictions on Kiev’s use of long-range U.S.-made missiles against targets in Russia.
Despite Trump’s promises to end the war quickly, it remains unclear whether he can convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop fighting as Moscow’s forces gain ground in eastern Ukraine. It is also not clear whether Trump’s team communicated with Putin’s government about Ukraine, and if so, what was conveyed by both sides.
When asked on “Meet the Press” if he was actively working to end the war, Trump said, “I am, but he declined to say whether he had spoken to Putin since the November election.”
“I don’t want to say anything about that because I don’t want to do anything that could hinder the negotiations,” Trump said.
The transition team declined to comment on whether a Putin ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, conveyed a message from Russia to Trump during his recent visit to Mar-a-Lago.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has held several conversations with his appointed successor, Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., who Trump has tapped to take over the job, according to a senior administration official and other sources familiar with the matter. They have focused on sharing relevant information but have not explored strategies to end the war or broker a ceasefire, one of the sources said.
One benefit of these discussions is that they will ensure that the Trump transition team will not be surprised by the Biden administration’s actions in Ukraine before the president-elect is inaugurated in January, the senior administration official said.
“Trump is very serious about reaching a ceasefire on day one,” said a source with knowledge of the matter.
Trump’s team is pushing hard to broker a pause in the fighting that would pave the way for peace talks, but the challenges remain high as the war approaches the three-year mark.
Asked whether Walz and others on Trump’s transition team are working with the Biden administration on a ceasefire plan, transition spokesman Brian Hughes said: “Congressman Waltz and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan are in contact on many issues. The goal is for the world to understand that there is a desire for the transition time to be seen as a strong America, working for peace and stability around the world, until President-elect Trump is sworn in.”
Trump’s team has not yet informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government about possible plans, according to two sources close to Kiev and former US officials in communication with Ukrainian officials. But recent meetings and discussions between Zelenskyy, Trump and their advisers have been constructive, including a face-to-face meeting in Paris mediated by French President Emmanuel Macron, the sources said.
“The atmosphere so far in terms of engagement between the Ukrainians and the new Trump team, including Zelenskyy and Trump himself, has been positive,” one of the sources said.
When Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, held talks last week with Keith Kellogg, Trump’s chosen US envoy to Ukraine, newly elected Vice President JD Vance joined the meeting.
Ukraine and its supporters in Washington and Europe feared that Trump would return to the White House with the view that Kiev would be the main barrier to ending the war. But the president-elect’s social media posts suggest he sees Putin, not Ukraine, as the problem, the two sources and former U.S. officials said.
“There is a sense that Trump himself understands that the Ukrainians are not the obstacle to peace,” the source said.
On Sunday, Trump wrote on social media that Zelensky and Ukraine were ready for a peace deal and that it was time for Putin “to act.”
But there is “zero indication” that Putin is willing to make concessions or that his overall goal of having effective control over Ukraine has changed, said John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
Momentum has shifted in Russia’s favor on the eastern battlefield in recent weeks as Ukraine faces manpower shortages. As a result, the Kremlin will be reluctant to stop fighting, analysts and former US diplomats say. Moreover, Russia would be unwilling to accept a ceasefire as long as Ukrainian forces continue to hold territory within Russia in the Kursk region.
A Russian hardliner with close ties to the Kremlin said in recent interviews that any Trump attempt to end the war will be doomed unless there are broader talks that address Moscow’s security concerns. Konstantin Malofeyev, a Russian tycoon and ultranationalist, told the Financial Times that Putin would likely reject a peace proposal floated by Kellogg months ago, before he was chosen by Trump to serve as U.S. envoy to Ukraine.
“Kellogg comes to Moscow with his plan, we accept it and then tell him to go fuck himself because we don’t like it. That would be the whole negotiation,” Malofeev said. “For the talks to be constructive, we should not talk about the future of Ukraine, but about the future of Europe and the world.”
Earlier this year, Kellogg proposed forcing both sides into peace talks by threatening to cut off military aid to Ukraine if the country does not agree to the negotiations, and by increasing arms deliveries to Kiev if Moscow refuses to come to the table . The plan would exclude Ukraine from joining NATO for up to ten years.
Under the plan, Ukraine would have to accept the current frontlines, at least for the time being, and regain lost territory only through diplomatic or political means.
Trump’s team is likely to reject Ukraine’s long-held goal of eventually joining the NATO alliance as a way to convince Russia to start peace talks with Kiev, sources with knowledge of the matter say. Instead, some alliance members could offer Ukraine security guarantees. Zelenskyy has proposed the idea of stationing foreign troops in the country until Kiev could join the NATO alliance.
Trump’s transition team declined to comment on how Trump views the idea of blocking Ukraine from joining NATO indefinitely or for a specified period.
Earlier this year, Biden officials weighed whether to launch an effort to pressure the transatlantic alliance to invite Ukraine to join. But the idea was rejected after Trump won the election in November, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
The Biden administration official said it would be a serious mistake if Trump pushed for a peace deal that would prevent Ukraine from joining NATO in the near future. That would amount to a major achievement for Putin – advancing his strategic interests by preventing Ukraine from becoming part of the West’s military bulwark against Moscow – and almost justify his invasion of Ukraine, the official said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
