Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted last week that he’s “ready” for potential talks with President-elect Donald Trump on ending the nearly three-year-long war in Ukraine.
Putin, during a wide-ranging end-of-year news conference in Moscow, claimed that he hasn’t spoken to Trump in years and that there are no current plans for a meeting — but if they do talk, he’s ready to make “compromises” to end the war in the former Soviet state.
“I don’t know when we will meet because he has not said anything about it,” the 72-year-old Russian leader said of his once and future US counterpart.
“I have not talked to him for more than four years,” Putin continued. “Of course, I’m ready to talk any time; I will be ready to meet with him if he wishes.”
Trump, 78, declared on the campaign trail that he would lead peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and boasted that he could end the brutal conflict within 24 hours of assuming the presidency.
Over the weekend, the president-elect said Putin was eager to start negotiating an end to the war.
“President Putin said that he wants to meet with me as soon as possible,” Trump said during remarks at Turning Point’s AmericaFest convention on Sunday.
“So we have to wait for this, but we have to end that war. That war is horrible, horrible.”
The Washington Post reported last month that Trump held his first post-election call with Putin days after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris.
During the call, Trump reportedly warned Putin against ramping up in Ukraine.
The Russian president and the Kremlin have denied that a call with Trump took place.
Putin insisted that he won’t be the weaker leader if and when he and Trump meet – but that he’s still prepared to make a deal.
“I believe that Russia has become significantly stronger in the past two or three years,” he argued. “Why? Because we are becoming a truly sovereign country, and we barely depend on anybody.
“We are strengthening our defense capability. The combat readiness of the Russian Armed Forces is the highest in the world today. I assure you it is the highest,” Putin claimed, pointing to recent Russian advances in Ukraine.
“Politics is the art of compromise. We have always said that we are ready for both negotiations and compromises,” he said of potential peace talks with Trump.
“The problem is that the opposing side, both literally and figuratively, rejected negotiations,” the Russian leader argued. “We, on the contrary, have always been willing to talk, and talking always leads to finding a compromise.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who most recently met with Trump on Dec. 7 in Paris, has expressed a willingness to cede territory to Russia since Trump’s electoral victory if it would result in an end to the war.
Trump, during a Palm Beach, Fla., press conference last week, signaled that he’s already made “a little progress” toward brokering a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia but noted that the conflict will be “more difficult” to resolve than the current turmoil in the Middle East.
“It’s a tough one. It’s a nasty one,” Trump said of the war in Ukraine.
