- Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is willing to compromise on ending the war in Ukraine in talks with US President-elect Donald Trump.
- President Putin said he had not spoken to President Trump in years.
- President Putin dismissed the idea of agreeing to a temporary truce with Kiev, saying a long-term peace deal with Ukraine was enough.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said he was willing to compromise on Ukraine issues in possible talks with US President-elect Donald Trump to end the war, and there were no conditions for starting talks with Ukrainian authorities. .
Mr. Trump, a self-proclaimed master of deal-broking and author of the 1987 book “Trump: The Art of the Deal,” has vowed to quickly end the conflict, but he has no idea how. Details regarding whether this will be achieved have not yet been disclosed.
Putin, responding to questions on state television during his annual Q&A with Russians, told a reporter from a U.S. news channel that he was open to meeting Trump, who he said he had not spoken to in years.
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Asked what he could offer Trump, Putin dismissed claims that Russia was weak, saying Russia had become much stronger since ordering troops into Ukraine in 2022.
“We have always said that we are ready for negotiations and compromises,” Putin said after saying Russian troops were advancing on all fronts and moving toward achieving key goals in Ukraine. Ta.
“Soon there will be no Ukrainians who want to fight. In my opinion, very soon there will be no one who wants to fight. We are ready, but the other side needs to be prepared both for negotiation and compromise. .”
Russian President Vladimir Putin compromises on possible talks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump over the Ukraine issue at his annual year-end press conference in Moscow, Russia, on December 19, 2024. He said he was ready. (Reuters/Maxim Shemetov)
Reuters reported last month that Putin was willing to discuss a cease-fire with Trump with Trump, but ruled out major territorial concessions and insisted that Kiev abandon its ambitions to join NATO.
President Putin said Thursday that Russia has no conditions for starting negotiations with Ukraine and is ready to negotiate with anyone, including President Volodymyr Zelensky.
But he said any agreement can only be signed with legitimate Ukrainian authorities, and that the Kremlin currently only considers Ukraine's parliament as an authority.
Zelensky's term was due to expire at the beginning of this year, but it was extended due to martial law, but he must be re-elected in order for the Kremlin to consider him a legitimate signatory to ensure a legally secure agreement. President Putin said that there is.
President Putin dismissed the idea of agreeing to a temporary truce with Kiev, saying a long-term peace deal with Ukraine was enough.
Any negotiations should have started from a preliminary agreement reached between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in talks in Istanbul in the early weeks of the war, which was never implemented, he said. added.
Some Ukrainian politicians see the draft agreement as akin to a capitulation that would neutralize Ukraine's military and political ambitions.
People participate in Russian President Vladimir Putin's televised year-end press conference and telephone reception on December 19, 2024 in Moscow, Russia. (Sputnik/Alexander Kazakov/Pool via Reuters)
Russia-Ukraine war
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions, and triggered the biggest crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Russia, which has characterized the conflict as a defensive special military operation aimed at stopping NATO's dangerous expansion eastward, controls about one-fifth of Ukraine and has lost thousands of troops since the beginning of the year. It occupied a territory of square kilometers.
Determined to incorporate four regions of Ukraine into Russia, Moscow's forces have captured village after village in the east and are now threatening strategically important cities such as Pokrovsk, a major road and rail hub. .
President Putin said the fighting was complex and that it was “difficult and pointless to guess what lay ahead… (but) as you said, we have completed the main steps outlined at the beginning of the special military operation. We are working towards resolving this mission.” . ”
Putin discussed the continued presence of Ukrainian troops in Russia's Kursk region, saying Kiev forces would be forced to withdraw, but declined to say when that would happen.
The war has transformed Russia's economy, with President Putin saying there are signs of overheating leading to worryingly high inflation. But he said the growth rate was higher than in many other countries, including the UK.
Asked if he would have done anything differently, he said troops should have been sent to Ukraine earlier than 2022 and Russia should have been better prepared for conflict.
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Asked by a BBC reporter whether he had looked after Russia as President Boris Yeltsin had asked him to do before taking over at the end of 1999, Putin said he had done so.
“We have returned from the edge of the abyss,” Putin said.
“I have done everything to ensure that Russia is an independent and sovereign state that can make decisions in its own interests.”
According to President Putin, Russia has made a proposal to Syria's new ruler regarding Russian military bases in Syria. He said most people Moscow has talked to about the issue support them remaining.
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He added that Russia needs to think about whether to leave its bases behind, but that rumors about the disappearance of Russian influence in the Middle East are exaggerated.
President Putin emphasized the invincibility of the hypersonic Oleshnik missile, which Russia has already test-fired at a military factory in Ukraine, and plans to launch it again into Ukraine, asking whether Western air defense systems can shoot it down. He said he was ready to check.
In Brussels, President Zelenskiy referred to Putin's missile proposal at a press conference at the European Council and said of Putin, “Do you think he is a sane person?''
