Vladimir Putin spoke this Friday, January 24, and said he was “ready” to negotiate regarding the war in Ukraine. He also said that the “crisis in Ukraine” could perhaps have been avoided with Donald Trump.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he was “ready” to negotiate on the conflict in Ukraine with his American counterpart Donald Trump, although neither Moscow nor Washington have put forward a timetable or agenda for this long-awaited discussion. kyiv, for its part, has rejected any discussion on Ukraine “without Ukraine”. Moscow, kyiv and their allies are watching the position that the unpredictable White House occupant will adopt on the Ukrainian conflict, which he has repeatedly claimed to want to end without ever explaining his intentions. A conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, long discussed but not yet materialized, is seen as an important step. For a week, both the Kremlin and the White House have been saying they want this dialogue.
“I can only agree with (Donald Trump) that if he had been president, if they had not stolen the victory from him in 2020, there might not have been the crisis in Ukraine that happened in 2022,”, the Russian president said on state television, repeating the unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election had been “stolen” from Donald Trump. He thus took up the American president's unfounded claims about alleged electoral fraud in 2020. The American president “declared that he was ready to work together”, Vladimir Putin was satisfied on Friday during an interview on state television. “We have always said, and I want to emphasize this again, that we are ready for these negotiations on Ukrainian issues” , he added. Earlier, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said he was waiting for “signals” from Washington on the subject. He gave no indication as to the timing or nature of these signals. President Trump said on Thursday that he was ready to meet Vladimir Putin “as soon as possible” or even “immediately”.
Denouncing “a ridiculous war”, he assured that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “ready to negotiate an agreement“. Mr. Trump's positions are difficult to understand at this stage. His country is Ukraine's main military supporter and he has criticized this aid several times, but he has also recently threatened Moscow with more sanctions if no agreement is reached with Kiev.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000Not without Ukraine
In kyiv, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Andrii Yermak denounced the fact that the Russian president wanted to “negotiate the fate of Europe without Europe” and “talk about Ukraine without Ukraine”. Ukraine also fears being pushed to the negotiating table in a disadvantageous position, because it is struggling on the front, and being forced to cede its territories occupied by Russia.
Volodymyr Zelensky, long hostile to any negotiation with Moscow, has recently raised this possibility but has accompanied it with solid security guarantees from the West. The Kremlin, for its part, is essentially demanding Ukraine surrender, that it renounce joining NATO and that Russia keep the Ukrainian territories that it has claimed to annex. Conditions that are unacceptable for kyiv.
Read also: War in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin says he is "ready" to talk to Donald Trump… but wait for Washington to make the first move
Oil and strikes
On Thursday, during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Donald Trump had called for hitting Russia in the wallet by lowering oil prices. If they were lower “the war in Ukraine would be over immediately“, he had estimated. Vladimir Putin, praising the character“pragmatic” and “intelligent” of Donald Trump, considered that the latter would not take such a decision which would also harm “the American economy”.
Dmitry Peskov replied to him on Friday that the conflict in Ukraine “does not depend on oil prices”, but “stems from a threat to Russian national security”. Donald Trump's return to the White House occurs at a time when Russia clearly holds the advantage on the front. The Russian Defense Ministry announced Friday the capture of Tymofiivka, a small village in the Donetsk region (east). Hundreds of kilometers from the front, Russian strikes have left three dead in the Kiev region, according to a new report announced Friday by the Ukrainian authorities.
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed Friday that it had shot down 120 Ukrainian drones during the night over 12 of its regions, including Moscow, one of the largest attacks of this type against its territory since the beginning of the conflict. The Ukrainian army claimed responsibility for a nighttime drone strike on a refinery in the Ryazan region south of Moscow, as well as a factory of microcomponents used for the production of weapons in the Briansk region southwest of the Russian capital.