MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he was ready for talks with US counterpart Donald Trump on Ukraine, praising him as a “smart” leader who might have prevented the conflict from starting in 2022.
Kyiv reacted quickly, warning against being excluded from negotiations. The Russian leader did not say when talks would take place, and the Kremlin said earlier it was still waiting for “signals” from Washington, despite Trump announcing Thursday he was willing to meet Putin “immediately”.
“We have always said, and I want to emphasise this once again, that we are ready for these negotiations on Ukrainian issues,” Putin told a reporter from Russian state TV. Praising Trump as a “smart” and “pragmatic” man, Putin also repeated the Republican´s unfounded claim that he won the US presidential election against Joe Biden in 2020.
“I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president -- if his victory hadn´t been stolen in 2020 -- then maybe there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that emerged in 2022,” Putin said.
Trump, who was inaugurated on Monday, has called the conflict “ridiculous” and threatened Russia with tougher economic sanctions if it does not agree to stop its offensive. “If they don´t settle this war soon, like almost immediately, I´m going to put massive tariffs on Russia, and massive taxes, and also big sanctions,” the Republican said during a Fox News interview on Thursday. “I have a hard time imagining there will be decisions taken that are detrimental to the American economy,” Putin said on Friday.
Neither side has shown signs of de-escalating hostilities since Trump´s inauguration, despite the President claiming he would end the conflict in “24 hours” once in power. Kyiv on Friday warned against being excluded from any talks.
“He (Putin) wants to negotiate the fate of Europe -- without Europe. And he wants to talk about Ukraine without Ukraine,” the head of Ukraine´s presidential office Andriy Yermak said. “This is not going to happen. Putin needs to come back to reality himself, or he will be brought back. This is not how it works in the modern world.”