The U.S. Treasury secretary left a straight and to the point message in the welcome book at Shannon Airport in Ireland on Thursday, simply leaving the Trump administration’s two-word motto.

The plane Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was traveling on from Kyiv, Ukraine, made a stop at the western Ireland airport to refuel.

While there, Bessent signed the welcome book, writing, "AMERICA FIRST!"

FOX Business White House correspondent Edward Lawrence snapped a picture of the page, and above Bessent’s entry was an entry from former Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

JD VANCE, TREASURY SEC SCOTT BESSENT TO MEET WITH ZELENSKYY AS TRUMP TEAM SETS SIGHTS ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

"To all our friends at Shannon – with gratitude for always making us feel at home away from home," Blinken wrote, though the date of the entry was not visible in the photo.

President Donald Trump announced earlier this week that he was sending Bessent to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

‘LET’S DO A DEAL’: ZELENSKYY CALLS TRUMP’S TERMS ACCEPTABLE FOR SECURITY PARTNERSHIP

"This War MUST and WILL END SOON — Too much Death and Destruction. The U.S. has spent BILLIONS of Dollars Globally, with little to show," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Bessent was expected to speak with the Ukrainian president about sanctions, rare Earth minerals and where U.S. funding has gone.

Vice President JD Vance was also meeting with Zelenskyy this week, and both meetings were to take place before U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg travels to Ukraine on Feb. 20.

Trump tasked Kellogg with hashing out a peace deal with Ukraine and Russia to bring the three-year-long war to an end. Last week Kellogg met with Ukrainian delegates at the State Department. 

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

Vice President JD Vance will meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday after years of railing against the U.S.’ continued funding of Ukraine in the war against Russia. 

The vice president will meet with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, a Vance spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital, just ahead of U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg’s trip to Ukraine on Feb. 20. 

Trump announced on Tuesday he would also send Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to meet with Zelenskyy in Ukraine. 

"This War MUST and WILL END SOON — Too much Death and Destruction. The U.S. has spent BILLIONS of Dollars Globally, with little to show," Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

‘LET’S DO A DEAL’: ZELENSKYY CALLS TRUMP’S TERMS ACCEPTABLE FOR SECURITY PARTNERSHIP

Bessent is expected to talk about sanctions, rare Earth minerals and where U.S. funding has gone with the Ukrainian leader. 

Trump tasked Kellogg with hashing out a peace deal with Ukraine and Russia to bring the three-year-long war to an end. Last week Kellogg met with Ukrainian delegations at the State Department.  

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are also attending the conference where the Russia-Ukraine war is sure to be a top focal point. 

RUSSIA SAYS US RELATIONS ‘ON THE BRINK OF A BREAKUP,’ WON'T CONFIRM TRUMP-PUTIN TALK

The U.S. does not have a concrete plan yet to end the war, contrary to public reporting, and is listening to concerns and proposals from allies, a European official familiar with peace talks told Fox News Digital. 

"Munich is too soon to unveil a Ukraine peace plan," the official said. "The negotiations between the principals – Trump, Zelenskyy, Putin – will be tough. All options to end the killing are on the table – the course of action will be Trump’s call. There’s still plenty of room to ramp up sanctions." 

Trump said last week he might meet with Zelenksyy himself in the days ahead. 

"I will probably be meeting with President Zelenskyy next week and I will probably be talking to President Putin," Trump said. 

In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier Monday night, Trump emphasized the need for Ukraine to give the U.S. access to its rare Earth minerals in exchange for its defense. He also suggested Ukraine "may be Russian" someday. 

"They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian some day, or they may not be Russian some day," Trump mused. 

"We are going to have all this money in there, and I say I want it back. And I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion worth of rare Earth," Trump said. "And they have essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don’t feel stupid."

TRUMP'S 'RARE' PRICE FOR US MILITARY AID TO UKRAINE CALLED 'FAIR' BY ZELENSKYY

Both Zelenskyy and Putin have remained opposed to direct talks with each other. Putin is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from regions in the south and east that Kyiv still has control over. Zelenskyy has scoffed at any territorial concessions to Moscow, though he has admitted Ukraine may have to rely on diplomatic means to take back some of its territory. 

Vance was long at the forefront of opposition to Ukraine aid in the Senate. 

"I gotta be honest with you, I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another," he said in February 2022 as Russia invaded. 

"Vladimir Putin is not Adolf Hitler. It doesn't mean he's a good guy, but he has significantly less capability than the German leader did," Vance said in an April 2024 speech on the Senate floor.

A Munich Security report, released just days before world leaders gather in Germany, said that Trump’s election has turned the U.S. into a "risk to be hedged against."

"Without global leadership of the kind provided by the United States for the past several decades, it is hard to imagine the international community providing global public goods like freedom of navigation or tackling even some of the many grave threats confronting humanity," the report warned. "The US may be abdicating its historic role as Europe’s security guarantor – with significant consequences for Ukraine."

President Donald Trump may soon meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  

"He may meet next week, yeah. Whenever he would like. I’m here," Trump told reporters while hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday. 

Trump said that the meeting would likely be held in Washington, D.C., because he would not go to Ukraine. 

Trump also said there was a possibility he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, noting that the two have always had a "very good relationship." 

TRUMP AND ‘NO ONE ELSE’ CAN END THE UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR, US ALLY SAYS 

"That’s why it is so sad that this happened," Trump said, appearing to reference Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. "This never would have happened if I were president." 

Trump, who met with Zelenskyy in New York in September 2024, urged Putin to cease the war — or face sanctions — in a post on Truth Social on Jan. 22. 

"Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT'S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE," Trump said. If we don't make a 'deal', and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said he backed issuing harsher sanctions on Russia during his confirmation hearing Jan. 16 to expedite the end of the war. 

TRUMP'S ‘RARE’ PRICE FOR US MILITARY AID TO UKRAINE CALLED ‘FAIR’ BY ZELENSKYY

According to retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump's envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Trump is the only person who could end the conflict. 

"The only person that Putin will really want to talk to — because he’s kind of denigrated other leaders that are out there — is President Trump, and President Trump’s the only one who can bring this to a conclusion," Kellogg told "Fox & Friends Weekend" on Sunday. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Fox News’ Rachel Wolf contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump said Thursday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is ready to negotiate a deal to end the war with Russia, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to meet soon.

Trump spoke to reporters after signing multiple executive orders Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office. When a reporter asked if Zelenskyy told him he was ready to negotiate a solution to the war with Russia, Trump provided confirmation.

"Yes, he’s ready to negotiate a deal. He’d like to stop this," Trump said. "He’s somebody that lost a lot of soldiers, and so did Russia. … Russia lost more soldiers. They lost 800,000. Would you say that’s a lot? I’d say it’s a lot."

He was also asked if sanctions on Russia would force Putin to negotiate.

PUTIN REPORTEDLY CONCERNED OVER RUSSIA'S ECONOMY AHEAD OF POSSIBLE TRUMP TARIFFS

"I don’t know, but I think he should make a deal," Trump said.

Trump also told reporters Chinese President Xi Jinping could have an influence on the war between Russia and Ukraine since it has power over Russia. He explained that the two countries are big trading partners. 

Russia, Trump noted, supplies China with a lot of energy, and the latter pays the former a lot of money.

"I think they have a lot of power over Russia, so I think Russia should want to make a deal," Trump said. "From what I hear, Putin would like to see me, and we’ll meet as soon as we can."

PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA READY TO COMPROMISE WITH TRUMP ON UKRAINE WAR

When he described the war in Ukraine, Trump said soldiers were being killed on a battlefield that "is like no battlefield since World War II."

"Soldiers are being killed on a daily basis at numbers that we haven’t seen in decades," he said. "It would be nice to end that war. It’s a ridiculous war."

Putin is reportedly worried about the state of his country’s economy as Trump returns to the Oval Office. According to a Reuters report citing various sources, Trump's push to end the war in Ukraine is only adding to Putin's concerns.

PUTIN, XI VOW TO ‘DEEPEN’ ALLIANCE HOURS AFTER TRUMP RE-ENTERS THE WHITE HOUSE

Throughout his campaign, Trump pushed to end world conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war, which began with Putin’s 2022 invasion.

Last month, Putin said he was ready to compromise over Ukraine in possible talks with Trump on ending the war and had no conditions for starting talks with Ukrainian authorities.

"We have always said that we are ready for negotiations and compromises," Putin said at the time, after saying that Russian forces, advancing across the entire front, were moving toward achieving their primary goals in Ukraine.

"In my opinion, soon there will be no one left who wants to fight. We are ready, but the other side needs to be ready for both negotiations and compromises."

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.

A North Korean M1989 Koksan self-propelled howitzer has allegedly been spotted on Russia’s front lines, according to reports on Tuesday after news regarding the shipment of two of the big guns was first reported in November.

The artillery weapon has a reported range of up to 37 miles when employing rocket-assisted shells and is capable of firing between one and two shells every five minutes. 

News of the weaponry, along with a video apparently showing one of the howitzers in a combat location, was first reported by East 2 West news, and images of the howitzer popped up on social media, though Fox News Digital could not independently verify the location of the weapon.

UKRAINE: HOW THE WAR SHIFTED IN 2024

According to open-source intelligence posted on X in November, the howitzers were geolocated and found to have been passing through Siberia by rail less than a month after the U.S. confirmed North Korea had deployed up to 12,000 soldiers to Russia and some five months after Pyongyang and Moscow signed a defensive treaty pledging to militarily back each other.  

It remains unclear if the video of the North Korean big gun was taken from Russia’s Kursk region, where Pyongyang’s soldiers have been sent to counter Ukraine’s incursion first launched in August. 

Both Ukraine and Russia have reported heavy losses in the region, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claiming that some 3,800 North Korean troops have been killed or wounded in a Sunday interview. 

The Ukrainian military on Monday claimed that some 15,000 Russian soldiers had been killed and 23,000 injured in Kursk during the past five months.

ZELENSKYY SAYS TRUMP COULD BE ‘DECISIVE’ IN BRINGING AN END TO THE WAR

Moscow, according to a Tuesday BBC report, alleged that at least 49,000 Ukrainian troops had been lost, though it has not differentiated between the number of Ukrainians wounded or killed.

Fox News Digital has not been able to independently verify either nation’s casualty reports. 

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed on Monday that Ukrainian forces made "tactical advances amid continued intensified offensive operations" in Kursk. 

"Ukrainian forces may be continuing to conduct long-range strikes against Russian rear areas in Kursk Oblast as part of efforts to use integrated strike capabilities to support ground operations," the think tank added. 

Russian forces continued limited ground operations towards the city of Kharkiv in northern Ukraine on Sunday and Monday, but reportedly saw little advances – an operation Ukraine has in large part successfully countered since May.  

Head of the Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration, Oleh Synehubov, said on Monday that Ukraine's recent offensive operations in Kursk have been able to reduce the number of Russian ground attacks in northern Kharkiv Oblast, reported the ISW.

Reports on Monday suggested that Russian forces had made some advances in Donetsk and had captured Kurakhove, a front-line town in the Donbas region. The seizure of this town could indicate Russian forces are closing in on Ukrainian troops, who have been hammered for months looking to stop Russian forces from encircling the town of Pokrovsk, and which could give Russian forces a strategic win and access to supply routes connecting the area to Zaporizhzhia. 

Ukraine has not officially confirmed whether Kurakhove has fallen.

Russian forces are not assessed to have made any strategic advances along other front-line areas at this time. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy struck a hopeful tone on Thursday during a televised interview and said he believes President-elect Donald Trump could be "decisive" in ending the war as Kyiv stares down the third anniversary of Russia's invasion. 

"Trump can be decisive. For us, this is the most important thing," Zelenskyy said according to a Reuters report. "His qualities are indeed there. 

"He can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping [Russian President Vladimir] Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin," he added. "He is able to do this."

UKRAINE: HOW THE WAR SHIFTED IN 2024

Zelenskyy said Trump assured him that Kyiv would be among his first presidential visits following his inauguration later this month as Ukraine looks to stabilize the front lines. 

Stopping Russian advances early in the new year is a top priority for Zelenskyy, who also reportedly claimed that Putin feared negotiations as it would be seen by the Kremlin chief as tantamount to a Russian defeat.

Despite nearly three full years of war, Russia has been unable to achieve not only its initial war aims, but even Putin’s amended plans, which he announced last year when he said his main goal is now to take all the Donbas – a region in eastern Ukraine encompassing much of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

However, it is not only Putin who views potential peace negotiations with apparent trepidation. 

Zelenskyy has said he welcomes peace talks, but he has also made it clear that any negotiations on ending the war will only be accepted if Ukraine is granted certain security guarantees – like the possibility of joining NATO.

RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER BLASTS UKRAINE PEACE DEAL REPORTEDLY FLOATED BY TRUMP'S TEAM: 'NOT HAPPY'

"Naturally, any security guarantees without the United States are weak security guarantees for Ukraine," he said, though he added that Washington must take into account Kyiv’s future security.

"It cannot be otherwise," he added. "We are Ukraine, and it's our independence, our land and our future."

Putin, on the other hand, has said he will not accept any cease-fire negotiations that do not include guarantees that bar Kyiv from joining the 32-member body, which under Article 5 of the alliance’s treaty says an attack on one member will trigger an attack from all NATO nations and would effectively ensure a united strike on Moscow should it once again target Ukraine. 

Zelenskyy, who has led the country since 2019, was also asked if he would consider re-running for the presidency. 

The Ukrainian president reiterated that the nation cannot hold elections while in a state of war under the nation’s existing constitution but said he may consider it once the conflict has ended. 

"I don't know how this war will end," he said. "If I can do more than I am able, then I will probably view such a decision [seeking re-election] more positively. For now, this is not an objective for me."

Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the Trump transition team for comment.