Ukraine and its supporters in Washington and Europe had worried that Trump would return to the White House with the view that Kyiv was the main barrier to ending the war. But the president-elect’s social media posts suggest he views Putin and not Ukraine as the problem, the two sources and former U.S. officials said.

The Kremlin praised U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Friday for criticising Ukrainian missile strikes deep into Russian territory but said discussions about deploying European troops to keep a possible future peace in Ukraine were premature.

The Biden administration is working to surge deliveries of weapons to Ukraine in its final days in office in a concerted effort to put Kyiv on a strong footing going into 2025, according to a senior administration official.