President Donald Trump said Thursday he wants to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “soon” to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
President Putin responded Friday that the Ukraine war could have been avoided if the 2020 US presidential election had not been “stolen” from Trump.
“From what I've heard, Putin wants to meet me. I'll leave as soon as possible. I'll see you soon,” Trump said. said from the White House on Thursday after cheering. video address To the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
“Every day we don't meet and soldiers are killed on the battlefield,” he said.
Trump in his speech to the WEF called The Saudi-led OPEC cartel to cut the cost of oil, cut off Russia's revenue so it could no longer afford to continue the war.
“If prices fall, the Russian-Ukrainian war will end quickly,” he predicted.
“They should have done it a long time ago. They are actually, to some extent, very responsible for what's going on. Millions of lives are being lost,” he said. I did.
Trump used his preferred social media platform, Truth Social, later Thursday to urge Putin to “stop this stupid war.”
“It's only going to get worse. If we don't make a 'deal', very soon Russia will have no choice but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on what is being sold to the US and various other participating countries.” No,” Trump wrote, using liberal capital letters for emphasis, as is his habit.
“Let's get this war. If I were president, it would never have started! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is “It's always better. It's time to 'make a deal',” he added.
kremlin said On Friday, Putin is ready for a conference call with Trump.
“Putin is ready. I'm waiting for the signal. Everyone is ready. Coffee grounds are hard to read here. As soon as something happens, I We will inform you,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. This was not a malapropism about reading the tea leaves. Here's how to read Coffee Ground to predict the future art form In Türkiye.
Peskov said that in addition to the war in Ukraine, Russia is ready to discuss arms control with Trump and wants to cooperate with the new American administration on denuclearization. Russia withdrew from its last arms control agreement with the United States, the New Start Treaty, in 2023.
“We are interested in starting this negotiation process as soon as possible. The ball is in the American courts and they have stopped all substantive contacts,” Peskov said.
However, the Kremlin rejected Trump's claim that lower oil prices could bring Russia to the negotiating table.
“This conflict does not depend on oil prices,” Peskov said.
The price of oil in Russia is now spike US sanctions have increased shipping costs for Russian crude oil by almost 500% since the beginning of January. Russia's largest oil customer, China is reportedly nervous about taking deliveries from licensed tanker ships. The Russians are trying to solve this problem by rotating other ships not named under US sanctions to deliver oil to Chinese ports.
On Friday morning, Putin press conference If Donald Trump was re-elected in 2020, he said he might not have invaded Ukraine.
“If he had been president, if his victory had not been stolen from him in 2020, there probably would not have been the Ukrainian crisis that occurred in 2022,” Putin said.
Putin praised Trump as “smart” and “pragmatic” and predicted he would do a better job managing the U.S. economy than Biden. He said he was ready to talk to Trump about the Ukraine crisis as soon as possible.
“We have always said and I want to emphasize this again: we are ready for these negotiations on the Ukrainian issue,” he said.
At about the same time, President Putin's Foreign Ministry issued a belligerent statement accusing Western countries of supplying weapons to the “illegitimate Kiev regime.”
“Despite the loud talk about the need for peace negotiations, there are no practical actions of Kiev and the West that show that their true preparations are being objectively observed. The question of government legitimacy remains unresolved.”
The head of that ministry, Sergei Lavrov, was somewhat kinder after Putin indicated he was ready to talk to Trump. lavrov said Such a dialogue could be initiated if the U.S. government “considers Russia’s interests.”
Andrii Yermak, the chief of staff for Ukrainian President Voldymy Zelenskiy, was cool with the notion that Trump and Putin were talking bilaterally about war.
“Putin is trying to promote the idea of negotiations with the United States. But he has one condition: he wants to decide the fate of Europe. Without Europe. And he wants to decide about Ukraine We are trying to talk. Without Ukraine. This will not happen, ”Yermak. said.
