Russian President Vladimir Putin declared last week that he is “ready” to potentially hold talks with President-elect Donald Trump to end the nearly three-year-old war in Ukraine.
President Putin is having a busy year-end press conference He insisted in Moscow that he had not spoken to Trump in years and had no current plans to meet him, but that if a meeting were to take place he would make a “compromise” to end the war in the former Soviet state. He said he was ready.
“He hasn't said anything about it, so I don't know when we'll meet,” the 72-year-old Russian leader said of the former and future American leader.
“I haven't talked to him for more than four years,” Putin continued. “Of course, I'm always ready to talk. I'm ready to meet him if he wants.”
On the campaign trail, Trump, 78, vowed to lead peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, boasting he could end the brutal conflict within 24 hours of taking office.
Over the weekend, the president-elect said Putin was keen to begin negotiations to end the war.
“President Putin said he wanted to meet with me as soon as possible,” Trump said in remarks Sunday at the Turning Point America Fest convention.
“So we have to wait for this, but we have to end the war. That war is horrible, horrible.”
The Washington Post reported last month that Trump held his first post-election phone call with Putin days after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris.
During the phone conversation, Trump reportedly warned Putin not to step up his intervention in Ukraine.
The Russian president and the Kremlin denied that the call with Trump took place.
Putin insisted he would not be a weak leader if he met Trump, but said he was still willing to strike a deal.
“I believe that Russia has become significantly stronger in the past two or three years,” he claimed. “Why? Because we are becoming a truly sovereign nation, with little dependence on anyone.
“We are strengthening our defense capabilities. The combat readiness of the Russian military is the highest in the world today. I guarantee you it is the best,” Putin asserted, pointing to Russia's recent advance into Ukraine. .
“Politics is the art of compromise. We have always said that we are ready for both negotiation and compromise,” he said of the possibility of peace talks with Trump.
“The problem is that the other side has refused to negotiate, both literally and figuratively,” the Russian leader argued. “On the contrary, we are always willing to talk, and talking always leads to finding compromises.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who most recently met with President Trump in Paris on Dec. 7, said he is willing to cede territory to Russia since Trump's election victory if it helps end the war.
President Trump suggested at a press conference in Palm Beach, Florida, last week that he had already made “some progress” toward brokering a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, but that resolving the conflict would be “more difficult” than it is now. He pointed out that it would be. turmoil in the Middle East.
“It's difficult. It's terrible,” Trump said of the Ukraine war.
