U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he would soon talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to push the Russian leader to end his nearly three-year war on neighboring Ukraine.

“Millions of young lives are being wasted. That war is horrible,” Trump, via video link from Washington, told global business leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

He said “Ukraine is ready to make a deal,” although no peace negotiations have been announced. “This is a war that never should’ve started.”

Trump, three days into his second term in the White House, said he would ask Saudi Arabia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut global oil prices, now about $77 a barrel, to curb Russia’s oil revenues, which it uses to fund the war.

“If the price comes down,” Trump said, “the war in Ukraine will end immediately.”

“It’s so important to get that done,” he said. “It’s time to end it.”

WATCH: Trump pressures Russia to end Ukraine war as Kremlin shrugs off sanction threats

Russia unfazed by threats

Trump’s new remarks on the war came a day after he described the conflict as a “ridiculous war” and told Putin in a social media message that if he didn’t move to end it, the U.S. would impose new tariffs, taxes and sanctions on Russian exports to the West.

But the Kremlin was unmoved by Trump’s threat, saying Thursday it did not see any particularly new elements in U.S. policy toward Russia.

“He likes these methods, at least he liked them during his first presidency,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said Russia remains ready for “mutually respectful dialogue” with the United States as Trump starts a four-year term in the White House.

Trump told Putin in a social media post that he was “not looking to hurt Russia” and that the U.S. “must never forget” that Russia helped the U.S. win World War II, but that it was time to end Moscow’s attack on neighboring Ukraine.

“All of that being said,” Trump noted on his Truth Social account, “I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE.”

“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon,” Trump said he would “have no other choice” but to impose the taxes, tariffs and sanctions. Under former U.S. President Joe Biden, who left office as Trump assumed power, the United States and its European allies frequently sanctioned key sectors of the Russian economy and oligarch friends of Putin, worsening the country’s economy but failing to stop the war.

Trump said, “Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way — and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!”

Russian attack kills 1, say officials in Zaporizhzhia

On the battle front, officials in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said Thursday a Russian ballistic missile attack killed at least one person and injured 24 others.

Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram that Russian drones also destroyed an energy facility and knocked out power to tens of thousands of people.

In the Mykolaiv region, Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram that Ukrainian air defenses shot down nine Russian drones. But debris from the drones damaged several houses, Kim said.

Ukraine’s military also shot down several drones over the Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down four Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region located along the Russia-Ukraine border.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters

Source: voanews.com