“And I will also be ready for a meeting, if he wants it,” he added. “If we ever meet President-elect Trump, I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about,” he said. Donald Trump said Monday he wanted to speak to Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to stop the “carnage” of the armed conflict in Ukraine.
Donald Trump, who is due to take office in January, promised during his election campaign to end the war quickly, and has already called for an “immediate ceasefire” and talks, so much so that Europeans and Ukrainians fear he could force major concessions from kyiv and hand the Kremlin a geopolitical victory.
Zelensky opposed to any concession
The US president-elect said Ukraine should “probably” expect less help from Washington and opposed kyiv’s use of Western missiles to strike Russia. For his part, Vladimir Putin has stated on numerous occasions that he is ready for discussions with Ukraine provided that they are based on “the realities on the ground”, where Russian forces have had the advantage since the start of the year.
Russia is demanding in particular that Ukraine cede four regions that it partially occupies – those of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east and those of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south – in addition to Crimea annexed in 2014, and that kyiv renounces to its ambition to join NATO.
