Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech during the Russian Defense Ministry council at the National Defense Control Center in Moscow, December 16, 2024 (POOL / Alexander KAZAKOV)
US President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he wanted to speak to his Russian counterparts, Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian counterparts, Volodymyr Zelensky, to stop the “carnage” of the war in Ukraine, after the master of the Kremlin welcomed the advance of his troops on the front.
Mr. 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.
“We're going to talk to President Putin and we're going to talk (to) Zelensky and (the) representatives of Ukraine. We have to stop this, it's carnage,” Mr. Trump said Monday from his residence in Mar-a -Lago in Florida.
“A large part of this territory, when you look at what happened… There are towns where there is not a building standing, it's a demolition site (…). People don't cannot return to these cities, there is nothing left,” declared the future American president.
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly affirmed 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 its ambition to join NATO.
Volodymyr Zelensky has long been categorically opposed to any concession to Vladimir Putin, but has softened this position in recent months in the face of the difficulties of his army on the front and fears of a weakening of Western aid.
In particular, he put forward the idea that Ukraine temporarily renounces recovering territories controlled by Russia, in exchange for security guarantees from NATO and new deliveries of Western arms.
– “30 km2 per day” –
This announcement from Donald Trump comes a few hours after the Russian president took stock of the year 2024 of the fighting in Ukraine, welcoming the pace of the advance of his troops and having “the initiative” throughout the front at the end of this “pivotal year”.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov during the council of the Russian Ministry of National Defense in Moscow, December 16, 2024 (POOL / Alexander KAZAKOV)
Less numerous and less well armed, the Ukrainian forces have been losing ground for months, but at a pace that has accelerated since the fall. Russian soldiers are today notably at the gates of the strategic towns of Pokrovsk, Kupiansk and Kurakhové.
“Russian troops have the strategic initiative across the entire line of contact,” assured Mr. Putin in a speech to the main executives of his Defense Ministry.
He thus claimed the capture of “189 localities” during 2024, a year marked in particular by the fall of the Ukrainian fortresses of Avdiïvka in February and Vougledar in October.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said that Russia had taken 4,500 km2 of Ukrainian territory this year, and was currently advancing at “30 km2 per day”.
The Russian army again claimed Monday the conquest of a new locality, Yelyzavtivka, located about ten kilometers south of Kourakhové, an industrial town in the East which is home to a large lithium deposit.
– North Korean support –
In this context, Ukraine, which fears arriving at the negotiating table in a weak position, is trying to contain Russian troops and is demanding increased support from its Western allies.
But the sustainability of this crucial assistance is not guaranteed, with the return to power of Donald Trump in January in the United States, which has until now been, along with the EU, the main donors of Ukraine.
Trump said Ukraine should “probably” expect less aid from Washington and opposed kyiv's use of Western missiles to strike Russia.
Map of areas controlled by Ukrainian and Russian forces in Ukraine as of December 15, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. GMT (AFP / Valentin RAKOVSKY)
The head of Polish diplomacy said Monday that it was Russia that should be “forced” to initiate peace negotiations and not kyiv, while Europe fears pressure from the future Trump administration for an agreement to the detriment of kyiv.
On Monday, the United States and its allies also denounced North Korea's “direct” support for Russia, which represents “a dangerous widening” of the conflict in Ukraine.
kyiv said Monday that “at least 30 soldiers” North Korean, fighting alongside the Russian army, were injured or killed Saturday and Sunday in the Russian region of Kursk, partially occupied by kyiv's forces.
According to Westerners, some 11,000 North Koreans are deployed on the Russian side.
