The Russian president told a reporter that he was in a position to meet with Donald Trump, whom he said he had not spoken to in years.
Independent premium
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
In his marathon televised annual press conference, Vladimir Putin boasts of the Russian military’s successes and says he is in a position to engage with Ukraine in negotiations imaginable to end their war and that he has no situations to start talks.
The Russian president told a reporter that he was in a position to meet with Donald Trump, whom he said he hadn’t spoken to in years.
The president-elect of the United States has promised to quickly end the war in Ukraine, without giving details on how to achieve this.
Asked what he might be offering Trump, Putin rejected the claim that Russia is in a weak position.
“We have always said that we are ready for negotiations and compromises,” Mr Putin said, after claiming that Russian forces, advancing across the entire front, were moving towards achieving their primary goals in Ukraine.
“Soon the Ukrainians who will have to fight will be exhausted; In my opinion, there will soon be no one left to fight. We are in a position, but the other aspect will have to be in a position to negotiate and reach agreements. “
Reuters reported last month that Mr Putin was open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Mr Trump but ruled out making any major territorial concessions and insisted Kyiv must abandon its ambitions to join Nato.
Mr. Putin said on Thursday that Russia had no situations for beginning negotiations with Ukraine and in a position to negotiate with anyone, adding Volodymyr Zelensky.
But he said any deal could only be signed with Ukraine’s legitimate authorities, which for now the Kremlin considered to only be the Ukrainian parliament.
Mr Zelensky, whose term is set to expire this year but was extended due to martial law, would want to be re-elected by Moscow to see him as a valid signatory to any agreement to make sure it is legally airtight, Mr Zelensky said. Putin.
Any talks should take as their starting point a preliminary agreement – never enacted – that was reached between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators at talks in Istanbul in the early weeks of the war, he added.
Some Ukrainian politicians regard that draft deal as akin to a capitulation which would have neutered Ukraine’s military and political ambitions.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
On the continued presence of Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, Putin said kyiv’s troops would be forced to withdraw, but declined to say precisely when that would happen.
The war has transformed the Russian economy and Mr Putin said it was showing signs of overheating which was stoking worryingly high inflation. But he claimed growth was higher than many other economies such as Britain.
When asked by a BBC reporter if he had dealt with Russia, something Boris Yeltsin had asked him to do before handing over the presidency in late 1999, Putin said yes.
“We have moved away from the edge of the abyss,” Putin said. I did everything I could to make sure that Russia was an independent and sovereign power, capable of making decisions based on its own interests. “
Putin also touted what he called the invincibility of the Oreshnik hypersonic missile, warning that it is in a position to launch some other release over Ukraine and see if Western air defense systems can simply shoot it down.
In Brussels, Zelensky addressed this issue at a press conference during a European Council meeting, saying: “Are you a sane person?
Russia is making steady, if slow, progress in Ukraine, but it has also suffered embarrassing setbacks. On Tuesday, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov was killed with a bomb planted outside his apartment building in Moscow, a brazen killing claimed in Ukraine that returned the confrontation to the streets of the Russian capital. Putin called the killing a “big mistake” made by Russian security agencies.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Join thought-provoking conversations with other independent readers and see their responses.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in