“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 Mar-a-Lago residence 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 is a demolition site […]. So people 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 Zaporizhia and Kherson in the south – in addition to Crimea annexed in 2014, and that kyiv renounces to 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” over all the front at the end of this “pivotal year”. 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 Beloussov indicated 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, Ukraine's main donors.
Trump said Ukraine should “probably” expect less help from Washington and opposed kyiv's use of Western missiles to strike Russia. 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.
