Trump seeking to meet Putin soon to end Ukraine war

US President Donald Trump says he wants to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon to secure an end to the war with Ukraine and expressed a desire to work towards cutting nuclear arms.

In the run-up to his November 5 election victory, Trump declared many times that he would have a deal in place between Ukraine and Russia on his first day in office, if not before.

His advisers now concede the war will take months to resolve.

"I really would like to be able to meet with President Putin soon to get that war ended," Trump, who returned to the White House on Monday, told the World Economic Forum in Davos by video link.

"And that's not from the standpoint of economy or anything else. It's from the standpoint of millions of lives are being wasted ... It's a carnage. And we really have to stop that war."

Trump also said US efforts to secure a peace settlement were now hopefully under way but gave no details.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Earlier this week, Trump threatened to impose "high levels" of sanctions on Russia and tariffs on imports from there if the Kremlin did not reach a settlement.

Trump also told the crowd on Thursday he wants to work towards cutting nuclear arms, adding that he thought Russia and China might support reducing their own weapons capabilities.

"We'd like to see denuclearisation ... and I will tell you President Putin really liked the idea of cutting way back on nuclear. And I think the rest of the world, we would have gotten them to follow, and China would have come along too," Trump said.

Ukrainian officials praised Trump on Thursday for threatening to impose tariffs and sanctions on Russia if it refuses to make a deal to end the war.

"We do really welcome such strong messages from President Trump and we believe that he will be the winner. And we believe that we have an additional chance to get new dynamic in diplomatic efforts to end this war," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, speaking in English at a discussion panel in Davos.

The Kremlin said it saw nothing particularly new in Trump's threat but that it was following closely "all nuances" in his rhetoric and remained open to dialogue.

Russian authorities on Thursday rejected the idea of NATO countries sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire in the war with Russia, saying such a move would threaten to cause an "uncontrollable escalation".

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the idea was totally unacceptable to Russia.

At a press briefing, she referred to recent statements by United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius about the possibility their countries might contribute troops to a peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

Pistorius said in a January 18 newspaper interview that Germany, as the largest NATO partner in Europe, would "obviously have a role to play" and the matter would be discussed in due course.

Starmer said on January 16 that the UK had been discussing the idea of a peacekeeping force with other allies and that "we will play our full part".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that at least 200,000 European peacekeepers would be needed to prevent a new Russian attack after any ceasefire deal.