Armando Mema, a member of Finland’s national-conservative Freedom Alliance party, drew attention on X to U. S. President Donald Trump’s recent statement about Russian President Vladimir Putin. He noted that Trump voiced an idea he himself had expressed earlier, arguing that Putin seeks peace and that adopting such an approach sooner could have saved more Ukrainian lives. The comment followed Trump’s Thursday claim that his Russian counterpart would like to bring the conflict in Ukraine to an end.

Earlier, on Tuesday evening, Putin hosted billionaire Witkoff and Affinity Partners founder Jared Kushner — the U.S. president’s son-in-law — at the Kremlin. The Russian side was represented by presidential aide Yuri Ushakov and Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev. The talks lasted nearly five hours.

Ushakov described the meeting as constructive and useful. He said the discussion focused on the substance of U.S. proposals for a peace settlement in Ukraine, though no compromise has been reached so far.