Russia responds to Trump’s declare he is establishing talks with Putin to ‘get that warfare over with’
Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to meet with President-elect Donald Trump, the Kremlin said on Friday.
And the Kremlin praised Trump for his willingness to speak about the war with Ukraine.
‘We need a mutual desire and political willingness to engage in a dialogue,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters. ‘We see that Mr. Trump also declares his readiness to solve issues via dialogue. We welcome that.’
But he added that it looked like any formal meeting would have to wait until Trump takes the oath of office on January 20th.
‘It looks like things will start to move after Trump enters the Oval Office,’ he said.
Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday night that ‘Putin wants to meet, and we’re setting it up.’
Donald Trump, hosting a meeting with Republican governors on Thursday night at Mar-a-Lago, said Vladimir Putin wants to meet with him
The president-elect offered no timeline of when that could happen. But he indicated the meeting would be about ending the three-year war between Russia and Ukraine.
‘We have to get that war over with,’ Trump said.
President Joe Biden’s administration has provided Ukraine with $61.4 billion in military assistance since Russia launched its invasion.
Ukraine worries Trump will end U.S. assistance.
Trump has repeatedly said the war must end. Earlier this week he suggested it could be done in the next six months.
But Ukraine and some Western allies have questioned Russia’s seriousness in negotiations and said that the Kremlin’s conditions are a demand for Ukrainian capitulation.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would need assurances about its future protection from Russia as part of a peace negotiation.
Russia, Ukraine’s giant neighbor to the West, has a history of invading Ukraine.
‘European security guarantees are not sufficient for Ukraine that fights such an enemy as Russia. We need joint security guarantees from the U.S. and Europe,’ Zelensky said.
Zelensky has pressed for Ukraine to become a member of NATO, which operates under the rule if one NATO country is attacked all members of the alliance respond.
Trump, on Tuesday, expressed sympathy for Russia’s opposition to Ukraine joining NATO.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met several times in his first term – above their meeting in Helsinki in July 2018
Trump and Zelensky met in New York in September 2024 (above) and then spoke on the phone after Trump won the November election
The president-elect is considering one proposal that would prevent Kyiv from joining NATO for at least 20 years in exchange for lucrative arms deals, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In the meantime, the conflict would be halted by the implementation of a large demilitarized zone (DMZ) that would effectively freeze the fighting in place and force Kyiv to relinquish up to 20 per cent of its territory as part of an ‘800-mile DMZ’.
But several obstacles must be circumvented before the conflict can be frozen and a ceasefire introduced – starting with the evident lack of enthusiasm from those expected to agree to and uphold the proposal.
Trump has already spoken with Zelensky ahead of his second term.
Shortly after Trump won the November election, the two men spoke – a conversation characterized by the Ukrainian leader as ‘excellent’.
Trump and Putin met several times during his first term. And Trump has expressed his admiration for the Russian leader.
