Advisers close to incoming president Donald Trump have conceded that a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia is likely months away. 

Speaking anonymously to the Reuters agency, two sources close to the president-elect said they were looking at a timeline of months, not days or weeks.

That’s despite Trump’s long-held claim that he would end the war on “day one” of his return to the White House. 

The sources put that promise down to campaign bluster and said there was a general lack of appreciation of the complexities of the conflict and the time it takes to set up a new administration.

In late October, Trump made a subtle shift in his rhetoric, and began saying he could solve the war “very quickly”. 

The new US envoy to Ukraine, retired lieutenant general Keith Kellogg, said last week he wanted a solution to the war within 100 days – but experts have cast doubt on this. 

John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine who is now at the Atlantic Council thinktank in Washington, said that timeframe was “way, way too optimistic”.