Vladimir Putin assured Friday that he was ready for negotiations with his American counterpart Donald Trump on Ukraine, without giving a concrete date. “I won’t dwell on it, but I can only say that the current president has said that he is ready to work together,” Vladimir Putin said. “We have always said, and I want to emphasize it again, that we are ready for these negotiations on Ukrainian issues,” he added.
Vladimir Putin is waiting for “signals” from Washington, the Kremlin had previously indicated. “Putin is ready. We are waiting for signals. Everyone is ready,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He gave no indication as to the timing or nature of these expected signals. “It’s hard to read the coffee grounds here,” Dmitry Peskov said, passing the buck to the White House.
On Thursday, Donald Trump reaffirmed his desire to meet the Russian president. “I think, from what I hear, that Putin wants to meet with me, we will meet as soon as possible. I would meet with him immediately,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “Every day that we do not meet, soldiers are killed on the battlefield,” said Donald Trump, judging that it was “a ridiculous war”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “is ready to negotiate a deal, they would like to stop,” he added.
VideoFor Trump, Putin “destroys” his country by refusing peace with Ukraine
-Earlier, during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Donald Trump called for lowering oil prices, saying that if they were lower “the war in Ukraine would be over immediately”. Dmitri Peskov replied on Friday that the conflict in Ukraine “does not depend on oil prices”. This conflict “arises from a threat to Russian national security,” he assured.
Since his re-election, Russia, Ukraine and their allies have been waiting to see what position the unpredictable American leader will adopt, particularly on crucial military aid for Ukraine, especially since he boasts of having a good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine fears being pushed to the negotiating table in an unfavorable position, because it is struggling on the front, and of being forced to cede its territories occupied by Russia.
Furthermore, the Kremlin calls on the United States to initiate nuclear disarmament negotiations “as quickly as possible”. The Kremlin spokesperson believes that “the ball is in the court of the Americans who have suspended all substantial contacts” on this subject with Moscow. “It is in the interest of the whole world,” he added. According to him, “we cannot” however carry out negotiations “without taking into account the nuclear potential of France or the United Kingdom”.
