Speaker 1: The US president has issued new remarks that raise questions about his relationship with Russia's president. Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin is ruining Russia by continuing its war on Ukraine, adding that he'd consider new sanctions if Moscow doesn't try to make a deal. CNN's Fred Pleikin has the details for us.

Speaker 2: Just hours after President Donald Trump's inauguration, Kremlin-controlled TV already poking fun at the new US leader and Trump's pledge to end the war in Ukraine on day one. In the US, they call the expression stop the war in 24 hours a bright example of Trump's hyperbole, the host says. But Trump himself says he intends to keep his promise and that his meeting with Putin is soon ahead. The tone on state TV very different than before the inauguration, like in December, when Trump had criticized the Biden administration's decision to allow Ukraine to use US-supplied ATAKMS missiles to fire into Russia. More absolutely sensational news, the anchor said then. Donald Trump condemned the use of ATAKMS for attacks on the territory of Russia. Shortly after taking office, President Trump, who claims to have good relations with Putin, appeared surprisingly critical of the Russian leader.

Speaker 3: Zelensky wants to make a deal. I don't know if Putin does. He might not. I don't know. He should make a deal. I think he's destroying Russia by not making a deal. I think Russia's going to be in big trouble.

Speaker 2: But Putin unfazed, showing whom he considers to be his most important ally and friend, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, even after Xi took the rare step of calling Trump shortly before the inauguration. Xi and Putin now making clear in a virtual summit China and Russia will stand together no matter what Trump does. These connections are self-sufficient and independent of domestic political factors and the current global situation, Putin said. This year, I am ready, together with you, to elevate Chinese-Russian relations to a new level, she added, to counter external uncertainties by preserving stability and resilience of Chinese-Russian relations. As Ukraine continues to lose ground in many sectors of the vast front line, Ukraine's president, speaking at the Davos Economic Forum, appeared concerned about whether Kyiv's allies can achieve what Ukraine would consider a just peace. If there are weak guarantees, uncertainty, only words, then you will only get words from Russia and they will come back with war again. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.

Speaker 4: Donald Trump had insisted that if re-elected, he would end Russia's war in Ukraine on his first day. Well, that deadline has come and gone and the war rages on unchecked.

Speaker 5: And the U.S. president was critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin for failing to make a deal to end the fighting CNN's Nick Payton-Walsh reports that Ukrainians are desperate for it to end soon.

Speaker 6: Neither Ukraine or Russia got a mention here. But hours later, Trump gave reporters his most stark criticism yet of Putin's war.

Speaker 3: He should make a deal. I think he's destroying Russia by not making a deal. I think Russia's going to be in big trouble. You take a look at their economy, you take a look at the inflation in Russia, so I would, I would hope, I got along with him great and, you know, I would hope he wants to make a deal.

Speaker 6: He said Europe should almost double its defense spend and he would meet Putin soon. Trump's words long awaited and welcomed here in central Kiev's fog. All the talk of peace deals, the conditions for it, of negotiations, somewhat distant and theoretical from the real dangers people in Kiev here go through every day, the sirens sounding so frequently and this vast sea of loss. Clearly, so many Ukrainians desperate for peace, but also to see the sacrifice that's made yield some kind of future they can be happy with. As the sea of grief spreads to fresh grass, hope is their only option. Nazar is just back from the recruitment office. Perhaps even in the coming days, he says, Trump should give more information about what he plans to do. But I don't believe in Trump alone. This is such a war that it will not be ended by the actions of one person. Yulia is here to remember her son, Yevgeny, who died fighting two years ago. Maybe we'll be given more planes and weapons to win faster, she says. We really hope so. We have great hope that he will help Ukraine. Ukraine's president delivering a gentle dressing down of his European allies in front of their elite in Switzerland.

Speaker 7: European leaders should remember these battles involving North Korean soldiers are now happening in places geographically closer to Davos than to Pyongyang.

Speaker 6: As his forces fought to hold back Russia here in Toretsk, he reminded the European elite some of its governments were less powerful now than TikTok's algorithm. Trump baiting Putin. Zelensky baiting Europe. Day one and change of the less expected sort is here. There is extraordinary hope voiced by people here in Ukraine. But you get the sense that underneath it, they perhaps feel they have little choice but to try and believe that Donald Trump, with the stark words he had to say, frankly, about the Kremlin's choices in this war, genuinely wants to put pressure on Moscow. But they also know, too, that their situation on the front line is deteriorating, frankly, daily. Incrementally, yes, but in a steady way that suggests the curve of this war is working not in Kiev's favour. And I think it is that clock that is ticking in the background that will dictate so many of the choices ahead. But it was remarkable to hear Donald Trump exert, rhetorically, so much pressure on the Kremlin heads in his first comments since coming to office. Nick Paton-Walsh, CNN, Kiev, Ukraine.