US president-elect Donald Trump has called for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to end “the madness”, prompting the warring countries to list their conditions.

Trump made his comments on Sunday (local time) just hours after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky in Paris for their first face-to-face talks since Trump won last month’s US election.

“Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, adding that Kyiv had lost some 400,000 soldiers.

“I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act. China can help. The World is waiting!” Trump added, referring to Russian President Putin.

Trump has vowed to bring about a negotiated end to the conflict, but so far has provided no details.

Trump, in Paris for the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral, sat down with Zelensky on Saturday for about an hour, along with host French President Emmanuel Macron.

Emmanuel Macron hosted Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris. Photo: AAP

Trump and Zelensky shook hands and smiled, but it was unclear how the conversation had gone.

Accounts of the talks from the French and Ukrainian sides said only that the discussions had been good and productive.

Zelensky reacted to Trump’s message on Sunday saying peace was not just a piece of paper, but needed guarantees.

“When we talk about effective peace with Russia, we must first and foremost talk about effective guarantees for peace. Ukrainians want peace more than anyone else,” he said on X.

“[The war] cannot simply end with a piece of paper and a few signatures. A ceasefire without guarantees can be reignited at any moment, as Putin has already done before. To ensure that Ukrainians no longer suffer losses, we must guarantee the reliability of peace and not turn a blind eye to occupation.”

It appeared Trump’s figure of 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers lost in the war meant both killed and wounded. Zelensky said 43,000 soldiers had been killed and that there had been 370,000 wounded.

Zelensky said updated data on Russian losses showed 198,000 killed and more than 550,000 wounded.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov convened a conference call with media to address Trump’s comments.

He said Russia was open to talks, but they had to be based on agreements reached in Istanbul in 2022 and on realities on the battlefield, where Russian forces have been pushing forward at their fastest rate since the early days of the war in 2022.

Putin has said repeatedly that a preliminary agreement reached between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in the first weeks of the war at talks in Istanbul, which was never implemented, could serve as the basis for future talks.

“Our position on Ukraine is well known,” said Peskov.

“The conditions for an immediate stop to hostilities were set out by President Putin in his speech to the Russian Foreign Ministry in June of this year.

“It is important to recall that it was Ukraine that refused and continues to refuse negotiations,” he said.

Putin has said a peace deal is also contingent on Ukraine not joining the NATO military alliance and Russia being left fully in control of four Ukrainian regions it already partially controls.

Peskov noted that Zelensky had banned contacts with the Russian leadership through a special decree. He said that order would have to be revoked if talks were to proceed.

-AAP