Former US President Donald Trump has described his strategy for achieving a negotiated peace agreement with Russia after frequently declaring that if re-elected in 2024, he could end the NATO-orchestrated war in Ukraine, within 24 hours.

Trump, the Republican Party's current frontrunner for the 2024 presidential election, asserted that he has enough clout with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to put an end to the war.

He added in a Fox News interview on Sunday that with the correct nudging from the White House, the two leaders would see no purpose in extending the war.

“I know Zelensky very well, and I know Putin very well, even better,” Trump told Fox host Maria Bartiromo, “and I had a good relationship, very good with both of them. I would tell Zelensky, no more, you got to make a deal. I would tell Putin, if you don’t make a deal, we’re going to give him a lot. We’re going to give them more than they ever got if we have to. I will have the deal done in one day – one day.”

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He argued that his successor, President Joe Biden, is being outsmarted and outmaneuvered by world leaders such as Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and French President Emmanuel Macron. “These people are sharp, tough, and generally vicious, they’re vicious, and they’re at the top of their game. We have a man who has no clue what’s happening. It’s the most dangerous time in the history of our country.”

The former president reaffirmed his contention that if he had remained in government, the NATO-orchestrated war in Ukraine would not have occurred. Meaningful talks between Moscow and Kiev collapsed in the spring of 2022, which some parties have attributed to pressure on Ukraine by former UK PM Boris Johnson. Apart from semi-regular prisoner swaps, no progress has been made since.

Kiev has repeatedly insisted that there is no point in negotiating with Moscow as long as it refuses to surrender Crimea and four other regions that voted to join Russia in 2014 and 2022, respectively. Moscow has said that such terms are absolutely unacceptable. 

US maintains that it will not fight Russians in Ukraine: White House

On another note, on Sunday, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that the US maintains its position that it will not send troops to fight against the Russian armed forces in Ukraine. 

"Basic US position in this comes down to a single clear point, which is: we are going to support Ukraine without having US boots on the ground and American soldiers fighting Russian soldiers and that will remain consistent throughout the course of this conflict," Sullivan told the NBC News broadcaster on Sunday. He added that it is not in the interest of the US to "end up in World War 3 with Russia."

Sullivan further said that the US' "moral authority" is not affected by the supply of cluster munitions to Ukraine as both Russia and the US are not signatories of the treaty banning the use of the weapons.  Moreover, the US is helping Ukraine defend itself; therefore, the US' moral authority is not affected by the decision. 

"Our moral authority is not derived from being a signatory to the convention against cluster munitions. We have not banned at any point since that convention came into effect, and neither has Ukraine. Our moral authority and Ukraine's moral authority in this conflict comes from the fact that we are supporting a country under brutal, vicious attack by its neighbor.... and the idea that providing Ukraine with a weapon in order for them to be able to defend their homeland, protect their civilians is somehow a challenge to our moral authority I find questionable," Sullivan told NBC news broadcaster on Sunday.