Vladimir Putin says he is “ready to meet Donald Trump at any time” and open to negotiations on Ukraine, which in themselves represent a “compromise”. But not for a ceasefire but for “a lasting peace with guarantees for the Russian Federation and its citizens”. From Brussels, almost at the same time, Volodymyr Zelensky also says he wants to “share more details” with Trump and rejects the idea of a “frozen conflict”. The parties are therefore preparing for negotiations after the changing of the guard at the White House, even if Putin excludes an agreement with the Ukrainian president in the current situation considering it “illegitimate”, since his mandate expired in May without it being possible to hold new elections in due to martial law.
ANSA Agency Ukraine, Zelensky: ‘Putin is crazy, Trump and the EU help us’ Ukrainian leader: ‘We will not accept a frozen conflict’While waiting for Trump, the Russians and Ukrainians continue their attacks, trying to strengthen their respective positions. Moscow announced that it had conquered two more villages in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk over the last day. While the Ukrainians, according to what was announced by the Russian Ministry of Defense, launched six American Atacms missiles and four British Storm Shadow carriers on the Rostov region, with the consequent warning that all this “will not go unanswered”. In the same region, Ukrainian drone bombing caused a fire at an oil refinery.
Putin spoke at the usual end-of-year press conference. A four and a half hour event in which he answered 76 questions from journalists and citizens. An event in which there was no shortage of media effects. A woman, who said she was speaking from “a bunker” in the Kursk region, asked him by phone when invading Ukrainian troops will be pushed back across the border. To which Putin said he could not give “an exact date”. To pay homage to the “heroes” involved in the conflict, the head of the Kremlin had the flag of the 155th Infantry Brigade of the Russian Navy unfurled behind him, which he said he had received as a gift from the soldiers themselves. Putin then launched the challenge for a “technological duel” with the US to demonstrate that the new Russian hypersonic missile Oreshnik cannot be shot down by any defense system. “We let them determine a target, for example in Kiev, and concentrate their entire missile defense system there, and we launch the Oreshnik,” he said.
Although he spoke of “compromises”, the Russian president insisted that negotiations with Kiev will have to take place “on the basis of the reality that is taking shape on the ground today”, with the Russian advance. The situation, he said, is changing “drastically” and Moscow is getting closer to achieving its “primary goals.” “We are talking about progress not of 100 or 200 meters, but of square kilometers per day,” he assured. The Tsar therefore appears convinced that time is in Moscow’s favour. Hence also the political condition placed in Kiev.
“We will talk – he said – with any person who goes to the polls and obtains legitimacy, even with Zelensky.” But as it stands, he warned, “we can only sign (any agreements) with those who are legitimate, and these are the Parliament and the President of the Parliament.”
Putin actually also talked about Russia’s vulnerabilities. Firstly inflation, which he deemed “a truly alarming signal”, admitting the impact of Western sanctions, which “make supply chains more expensive”. Then internal security, with the killing of General Igor Kirillov and his aide in Moscow, the consequence of “serious errors” by the special services.
Then on a personal note: the conflict in Ukraine is “a serious test for everyone,” he said. For him too. “In these three years I started joking less and I almost stopped laughing,” he confessed. Yet he did not renege on what he decided in February 2022, stating that instead the attack in Ukraine should have happened “earlier”, albeit with better preparation.
In the end there is also space to talk about the Middle East.
The fall of Bashar al Assad in Syria was not “a defeat” for Russia, Putin assured, saying that he had not yet met the former president who took refuge in Moscow but that he “intended” to do so. “The greatest beneficiary of the Syrian crisis – he added – is Israel, which should withdraw its troops “from the occupied Syrian territory”.
ANSA Agency The EU allocates 18.1 billion to Kiev, part of the G7 commitment Contribution for budgetary, military and reconstruction needs (ANSA)Reproduction reserved © -
