The Russia-Ukraine war will be ended “in 24 hours”: Donald Trump’s election campaign pledge

Donald Trump, a former US president, has refrained from declaring whether he wants Russia or Ukraine to win the conflict.

“I don’t consider success and failure. I believe in terms of having it settled,” Mr. Trump remarked during the first CNN town hall event in the state of New Hampshire for the 2024 US presidential election.

“I want everyone to live longer. As they pass away. Ukrainians and Russians. I want their deaths to cease. And I’ll get that done,” Mr. Trump declared, criticizing the traditional Republican position of supporting Ukraine.

“I’ll finish that in a day. I’ll take care of it. You need the presidency’s power to do it,” according to Mr. Trump.

Earlier in the town hall, Mr. Trump asserted that direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would enable him to end the conflict that broke out in February of last year.

“I’ll talk to Putin. I’m going to meet Zelensky. Both of them have advantages and disadvantages. And that conflict will be over in a day. It’ll be over,” said Mr. Trump.

When asked if he thought Vladimir Putin was a war criminal for alleged crimes perpetrated in Ukraine, Mr. Trump declined to comment.

“If you say he’s a war criminal, it’s going to be a lot tougher to make a deal to get this thing stopped,” he added.

He’s going to fight a lot harder than he’s fighting in the other condition if he’s going to be a war criminal because people are going to seize him and kill him. That will be covered in more detail later.

The former president said that he believes “Putin made a mistake” when he invaded Ukraine. When pressed for more information, Mr. Trump responded, “His error was going in. If I were president, he would never have entered.”