Trump went on to claim Vladimir Putin has “respect” for the US, and urged the Russian president to release Ukrainian soldiers “surrounded” in Kursk.

Donald Trump has issued a stark warning that the current global situation could lead to “World War III very easily” if efforts to reach peace in Ukraine failed.

Speaking to the Justice Department on March 14, the US president said a global conflict would be “a war like no other” but also said his plan to get Putin to sign a peace deal was, “in pretty good shape”.

Trump went on to claim Vladimir Putin has “respect” for the US, and urged the Russian president to release Ukrainian soldiers “surrounded” in Kursk, reports the Mirror.

Donald Trump said: “I think we’re doing well with Russia, we’re speaking with President Putin, we want to get the war over.

“We sent nearly $350 billion to Europe”, he said, repeating a vastly inflated figure of US military aid to Ukraine, going on to say: “We’ve had some very good calls today with Russia, and with Ukraine, they’ve agreed to a ceasefire if we can get it with Russia. And it’s not easy. It’s a tough one.

“I think we have it, I think we have it, but this could lead to World War III, very easily, could very easily lead to World War III. But I think we’re in pretty good shape, a lot better than where we were before we got involved.

“That was heading into World War III territory, that would’ve been a war like no other because of nuclear weapons, and other types of weapons that you don’t even wanna know about.”

Kyiv earlier this week backed proposals from the White House for a 30-day ceasefire to the conflict – but this has been flatly rejected by Russia. US envoy Steve Witkoff later presented the plans to Putin directly in a meeting on Thursday, and has set up a phonecall between Trump and Putin that is scheduled to take place in the next few days.

In his first comments on the ceasefire on Thursday, the Russian president said the “the idea is correct, and we certainly support it” but questioned the details, and suggested certain demands would have to be met for the Kremlin to fully agree to it.

G7 allies, including the UK, meanwhile said on Friday that they were united in calling for a ceasefire with “no conditions” to halt the fighting in Ukraine.

In a joint statement, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his counterparts “reaffirmed” their support for Ukraine, its sovereignty and territorial integrity, called on Russia to agree “a ceasefire on equal terms”. They also condemned North Korean, Iranian and Chinese support for the invasion.

Speaking after meeting partners in Quebec, Mr Lammy said: “I think that there is a unified approach that we need an enduring peace that lasts, I think that there is unity that now is the time for a ceasefire with no conditions. Ukraine has set their position out.

“It is now for Russia to accept it. I think that there is a coalition of the willing emerging to give Ukraine the security architecture and arrangements that they need, and to get into the detail of any monitoring of that ceasefire, going forward.

“On all of that, there was common ground, and the G7 family came together.”